Journal presents its 2025 All-Metro soccer teams

James Yodice James Yodice James Yodice Journal Staff Writer

Published December 6, 2025 - 4:54 p.m. Modified December 6, 2025 - 7:42 p.m.

The first of the Journal’s fall sports All-Metro teams is announced today, as we present our choices in boys and girls soccer.

As always, our AM squads are ultra exclusive, with just 22 boys and 22 girls total from all three of soccer’s classifications.

Volleyball will be coming next week, and football near the end of the month.

BOYS: Nearly half of the 11-man first team wore a La Cueva jersey or a St. Pius jersey this year. Those two state champions are represented large among the first 11.

For the Class 5A state champion Bears, chosen to the first team were stellar senior midfielder Winston Starr (15 goals, 12 assists), gifted freshman forward Brice Clark (his 21 goals and 15 assists left him among the state’s leaders in points) and senior defender Connor Hanks.

Nico Reyes, a junior forward, scored 31 goals for the 4A state champion Sartans. St. Pius sophomore Diego Herrera (14G/18A) is one of the four first-team midfielders.

Up top, the last of the three first-team forwards is Sandia Prep senior Ryan Williams, who had a historic year for the Sundevils. He finished with 36 goals and finished all-time in all of the storied program’s career offensive categories.

Sandia Prep vs NMMI — Sandia Prep’s Ryan Williams kicks a penalty kick, scoring the Sundevils’ first goal as they battled New Mexico Military Institute in early November at Sandia Prep High School.

Sandia junior Mateo Ojeda had a brilliant season with 28 tallies and 14 helpers, and the co-District 2-5A Player of the Year joins the first-team midfield. The midfield is rounded out by Rio Grande’s dynamic scorer, senior Kevin Trejo.

The Ravens had a second, first-team choice on the back line in Isael Dominguez. From 5A state runner-up Rio Rancho, senior Parker Dunn also lands on our All-Metro first team.

Between the pipes is Eldorado senior Taren Wente, narrowly taking this honor from Rio Grande’s solid Cristiano Flores.

GIRLS: Hope Christian, the now five-time defending Class 4A state champion and the most elite of all the girls programs in New Mexico, dominates the 2025 All-Metro team with half a dozen entries out of the 22 girls selected overall.

The Huskies and La Cueva combined for seven, first-team selections.

Junior midfielder Bryson Fankam, her district’s Player of the Year, scored 27 goals and doled out 15 assists for Hope in its latest championship run. Also in the midfield from Hope is senior Mason Ricker (15G/16A).

Ricker is one of four girls on our AM first team who also earned United Soccer Coaches All-West Region honors for this season.

Volcano Vista’s Kasey Sandoval, left, gains possession of the ball as La Cueva’s Gabby Idinopulos defends during the girls’ semifinal match at the ABQ Metro Soccer Championships in early September at the APS Complex.

La Cueva senior midfielder Makena Hix is one of the other three. So is Eldorado senior forward Emma Gurule scored 33 goals, including the game-winner twice in the postseason.

The fourth of the All-West Region choices is also the last of our first-team midfielders, Volcano Vista’s superb junior Kasey Sandoval (25G, 9A).

In addition to Eldorado’s Gurule, up top on the first team we have selected Hope Christian freshman Brooklyn Fankam (34G, 16A) and St. Pius junior Vanessa Cichy, her co-District Player of the Year who finished with 41 goals and 12 assists for 94 points for the Sartans.

On the back line is New Mexico State-bound Riley Erickson, a senior from La Cueva, plus Hope senior Hailey Sanchez and Eldorado junior Hayden Young.

La Cueva junior Ciena Carbajal (13 clean sheets, 13 goals allowed, a stout .676 goals-against average) is the AM first-team goalkeeper.