Soccer hits a high for Grafton:

The Grafton High School boys’ soccer team has the most players in program history, and the Black Hawks return their offensive spark plug and defensive stopper.

The Hawks have 56 players, enough to field three teams. About 20 are on the varsity squad, including North Shore Conference second-team midfielder Nikita Parsikovas. It’s his fourth year on varsity.

“He started at outside back as a freshman. Over the last couple of years we used him everywhere except keeper,” coach Jake Wilde said. “He’s a smart enough player, comfortable playing anywhere on the field.”

Parsikovas had three goals and three assists last season.

Sophomore August Benninghoff returns as keeper after earning NSC honorable mention.

“It’s huge,” Wilde said of getting his top keeper back. “We love Auggie. As a goalkeeper, not only skills-wise and technical ability, you’re going to hear him the most. He talks nonstop. He makes everybody on the field a little better, a little sharper.”

Bennighoff said he’s more comfortable coming into this season with one year under his belt in the net.

“I‘ve known all the guys for at least a year know, I know some from when I was younger,” he said. “I think there’s a higher team chemistry this year. Everyone respects each other and knows everyone really well.”

He made 130 saves last year, including 43 in the NSC.

The Hawks lost 11 seniors, including leading scorer Ethan Weinhold, who had eight goals and was named NSC honorable mention, along with fellow NSC honorable mention defender Carter Marien. Among the others was co-captain and midfielder Christian Hansen.

But junior Ethan Krueger is back after scoring four goals and tallying five assists. He and fellow strikers Julian Terrill, Jayme Dickmann and Talan Roddy will be on the attack. Dickmann is a sophomore who played on varsity last season. The rest are juniors who have experience.

In the midfield, senior Will Heinz returns to soccer after taking last season off, and the Hawks added senior Ethan Erebor, who moved from Michigan.

On defense, senior Sam Ruff and junior Zach Kelley are back after playing the back line last year.

Wilde said junior Chris Giraldo-Carranza has taken on a more defensive role this year.

“We always preach, you’ve got to be a soccer player, not your position,” he said.

Junior Will Dobberpuhl will also get on the field.

“His mentality is always spot on. He didn’t play soccer until freshman year. Whatever he lacks in experience he makes up with in character,” Wilde said.

Wilde also gets a couple of veteran assistant coaches back. James Johnson returns and Mike Bergmann, who took a break from soccer to coach softball for several seasons, is back. Bergmann was Wilde’s coach when he played for Grafton.

The NSC is expected to be brutal again. Whitefish Bay won the Division 2 title, and Homestead finished below .500 in the conference but qualified for state.

The Hawks play three of the four defending state champs.

“We will be up there with the best Division 3 schedules,” Wilde said. 

The Hawks started by nearly knocking off defending Division 3 champ Catholic Memorial on Aug. 25 in a 1-0 loss.

“It was a bit of a heartbreaker. We had a couple of scrums inside the 6-yard box. We hit the post a couple of times,” Wilde said.

“It gives the boys a little belief. That’s a defending state champ. A couple of moments go differently in that game and we win. It comes down to making plays when you have to.”

The Crusaders scored in the 77th minute.

Against Plymouth last Thursday, the Hawks took a 4-0 lead on goals by Parsikovas, Dickmann, Julian Terill and Paxtyn Brown before winning, 4-2. Parsikovas, Dickmann, Terrill and Zach Kelley each had an assist.

“We have a lot of guys who are comfortable playing in the attack. I think we’ll probably see a lot of goals from a lot of different players,” Wilde said.

Parsikovas and Benninghoff have been nominated to be captains, and Wilde also praised Dickmann for playing every minute of the first two games.

“He put in a lot of work in the summer, getting stronger and fit,” he said.

The Hawks are coming off a 4-13-1 season and a 1-5 mark in the NSC. This year already looks different.

“We have a lot of guys who are pure soccer players, who are committed to the sport and want to be as good as they can be. That makes it fun to coach and fun to go to training,” Wilde said.

Grafton plays at Hartford on Thursday, Sept. 3, and hosts Whitefish Bay on Tuesday, Sept. 8.