The goals of the Hinkley boys soccer team are yet to be revealed.
But one thing the Thunder knows this season is how to score goals.
Just three-plus weeks into the season, coach Mimi Holt’s Hinkley team — focused internally on things ahead — has ridden a suddenly explosive offense to the program’s most wins since 2021 with nine games left in the regular season.
“We set goals and the beginning of the season and we’re sticking to them,” Holt said Sept. 14 after the Thunder improved to 6-0 with a 2-1 win over Overland.
“We’ve definitely reached some of them, but we have more to go,” she added. “This has been the best year so far.”
In light of what happened in the 2025 season, there was literally nowhere to go but up for Hinkley.
The Thunder went just 1-13-1 for the program’s worst record in at least two decades.
Holt attributed a portion of last season’s struggles to the growing pains of youth (the roster had a large number of sophomores), but most glaring was a lack of offense. Hinkley scored multiple goals in a game only once and tallied just six times, which put it at the bottom of the list of Aurora area programs.
That’s what makes the Thunder’s 2026 start exceptionally jarring.
Hinkley has piled up a whopping 35 goals in six contests, more than defending Class 5A state champion Regis Jesuit (nine), Gateway (eight), Cherokee Trail and Smoky Hill (six apiece) and Aurora Central (four) had combined in 25 games through results of Sept. 14.
“We’re practicing a lot more on shooting,” Holt said.
A deeper look at the goal scoring numbers show that Hinkley’s offense is far from top-heavy.
Even though junior Martin Carrizoza has scored 11 times — which puts him just one off the lead in Class 4A behind Douglas County’s Tyler Rinker — nine other players have goals and five others (senior Frank Cardoza and juniors Gio Duran, Brandon Casillas, Alan Quintana and Gera Barco) have two or more. Duran and Carrizoza have recorded hat tricks (three goals) twice, while Casillas also has one to his credit.
It creates a significant amount of pressure for opponents trying to defend the Thunder.
“There’s not one superstar,” Holt said. “I’ve had three different boys have hat tricks and nine (now 10) of them score…They believe in our system and the boys have done a really good job of doing what I’ve asked.”
The scoring has created winning, as Hinkley has won its most games since 2021, when it had six wins in 10 more games.
The schedule will get more difficult, but the Thunder find themselves in the No. 5 spot in the Colorado High School Activities Association’s 4A rankings, which has it in a good early position to break a drought of postseason play that stretches back to 2021 when it was the No. 32 seed in the 5A playoffs. That is the lone postseason appearance in the past eight seasons.
Even better, Hinkley hasn’t had to win any shootouts thanks to the play of its defense, which has yielded just three goals in six games and no more than one in any contest.
Holt lauded the play of seniors Oracio Cano and Angel Cruz in the middle of the defense, which has stayed strong with rotating keepers behind them. Holt has subbed seniors Jorge Chavez and Jael Valdez for each other every 20 minutes throughout the season and both have done the job when in the net.
The 2-1 win against Overland — which came when Cardoza ripped a shot between two defenders and into the net to break a late tie — showed some grit to go with the flash.
Hinkley is now the only Aurora unbeaten team on the pitch in the wake of results Sept. 14, which saw Grandview suffer its first defeat in a showdown with unbeaten Valor Christian, which sits atop CHSAA’s 5A rankings.
Coach Greg Watts’ Wolves — who have also put a sub-.500 2025 campaign in the rearview mirror — also have corrected some offensive woes. Grandview scored 20 times in 15 games a year ago, but has 16 through seven contests of the new season.
Regis Jesuit — lost 1-0 to Ralston Valley in a rematch of last season’s 5A state title game — is 3-1 ahead of a trip to Rockhurst in Missouri for the Jesuit Classic Sept. 17-18.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
