In his five years at the helm, St. Michael's head boys soccer coach Merritt Brown can't remember a district title race that was as tight as the one in District 2A-AAA this season.

Brown can breathe a little easier after St. Michael's (11-7 overall, 8-2 in 2A-AAA) clinched the 2A-AAA title earlier this week, courtesy of Monte del Sol's 1-nil win over Santa Fe Preparatory in district play Monday.

Still, he says that this year's 2A-AAA season has been marked by high drama.

"It's been a very exciting season," Brown says. "We haven't been able to look past anyone."

Parity has defined the district this season, as St. Michael's lost to Santa Fe Prep twice, while the Blue Griffins dropped 2A-AAA matches against Desert Academy and Portales, in addition to Monday's loss to Monte del Sol.

The drama continued Wednesday with Desert Academy (12-6, 5-4) defeating Monte del Sol 2-1 at the Municipal Recreation Complex.

Prep (9-7, 5-3) played Waldorf School Wednesday, and will face Desert Academy in the final 2A-AAA match of the season for both sides Friday.

The district has existed in its current form for only two seasons, and includes five Santa Fe schools — St. Michael's, Prep, Monte del Sol (13-7, 6-4), Desert Academy, and Santa Fe Waldorf School — plus Portales.

Depending on the rationale of this year's Class A-AAA Boys State Tournament seeding committee, which meets Saturday, Monte del Sol, Prep and Desert Academy all could receive at-large bids to this year's 12-team tournament field.

The tourney brackets are announced Sunday, and St. Michael's, as the district champ, gains an automatic berth.

Brown says that the strength of the programs at Monte del Sol and Desert Academy this year is one reason for the increased competitiveness of 2A-AAA.

"It's a really positive development," Brown says. "Kids that go to these schools can really get behind the sport of soccer and support their teams. When we played Monte del Sol at the MRC, they probably had more fans out there than we do when we play at home."

Monte del Sol and Desert Academy have had success for different reasons this year.

"We're almost completely opposite teams," says Desert Academy head coach Rob Lochner. "We have a lot of guys who like to score goals out there, and they're a team that likes to keep goals out."

Indeed, going into Wednesday's match with Monte del Sol, Wildcats junior forward David Schmidtheisler was tied for second in Class A-AAA in goals with 22, while fellow junior Ram-Rattan Khalsa was fifth in A-AAA with 15 goals.

Meanwhile, Monte del Sol's game is modeled on the Italian style of play, which emphasizes a strong defense and the ability to counter-attack, according to first-year head coach Mazatl Galindo.

The Dragons' defense, backed by senior goalie Ryan Keffer, had produced seven shutouts this season going into Wednesday's match with Desert Academy.

"My kids are going out there with a game plan in mind for every match, and we're sticking to it," Galindo says.

While the number of 2A-AAA teams that will earn berths to this year's state tournament remains uncertain, Brown feels Monte del Sol, Prep and Desert have strong cases that are going to give the seeding committee something to think about.

Each of the five district champs in A-AAA will receive automatic bids to the dance, with the other seven slots in the tourney determined by at-large bids.

"We're a six-team district, and some districts in the state only have three teams, so I don't see any reason why four teams can't come out of our district," Brown says.

St. Michael's can enhance its own standing by performing well today
in a road match against Bosque School, the defending A-AAA state champion and a likely No. 2 seed in this year's tournament. If the Horsemen earn a top-four seed, they will receive a first-round bye at state, which begins Oct. 30.

"We're going into that match looking to win," Brown says. "Obviously they're just a really high caliber team. I'm hoping that we can give them a good game."

Luckily, his team has already been in plenty of those this fall.

Contact Jon Sward at jsward39@gmail.com.