Men’s Soccer vs. V.M.I. Preview

It will be had for preseason All-American Andrew Bulls to be a better scorer this year, but his all-around game has gotten even better.

It’s a season of high expectations for the UMBC men’s soccer team as they return virtually everybody from last year’s championship team. But any player or coach will tell you that you just have to take it one game at a time. Before UMBC can even have a chance to think about lifting up a trophy they have to start the season, and establish what they can do during non-conference play. Kicking off the men’s soccer team’s season is V.M.I. While V.M.I. finished just 2-15-1 last year, they do return 16 players from that squad and have a different style of play with a new coach running the show. But with that said, UMBC should be able to beat V.M.I. pretty handedly if they think they have a shot at having a great season.

UMBC has only played V.M.I. twice in program history, and not since 1997, but they are 2-0 against them and have outscored them 6-0 in the series.

UMBC had had a great deal of success in season openers, going 17-2 in them, and in home openers the team is an impressive 16-2-1 under Pete Caringi, who is entering his 20th year at UMBC’s soccer coach.

When you think of UMBC from last year you think of a very high-scoring team, and well after all they did finish fifth in the nation in scoring in 2009, but as more teams focus on shutting down Levi Houapeu and Andrew Bulls, other guys will have to step up. As said in my season preview, what ultimately cost UMBC a championship was that they could not find a player to score when that duo was being marked in the championship game. But this year UMBC will have plenty of scorers. Up front Houapeu and Bulls will be joined by Nirav Kadam and Danny Shannon, two high-scoring transfers, and freshman Petey Caringi.

But it’s the midfield that UMBC is hoping to get there scorers to step up from. Mark Lubetkin and Milo Kapor are both sophomores and should be headed for great good seasons as both showed a lot of promise at the end of last season.

Nirav Kadam could easily start on more other teams but will give UMBC a very good scoring option off the bench for UMBC.

Probable Starters:

UMBC
F- Levi Houapeu (15 g, 13 a, 33 SOG)
F- Andrew Bulls (15 g, 11 a, 42 SOG)
M- Andy Streilein (1 g, 1 a, 4 SOG)
M- Mark Lubetkin (2 g, 4 a, 4 SOG)
M- John Paul Waraksa (0 g, 3 a, o SOG)
M- Kinglsey Onwuka (Transfer)
B- Dave Vaeth (7 Starts)
B- Chris Williams (15 Starts)
B- Liam Paddock (19 Starts)
B- Vince Savarese (20 Starts)
GK- Phil Saunders (68 saves, 24 ga, 73.9%)

Key Reserves:
F- Petey Caringi (Freshman)
F- Nirav Kadam (Transfer)
F- Danny Shannon (Transfer)
M- Dustin Dzwonkowski (3 g, 2 a, 5 SOG)
B- Joe Green (5 Starts)
B- Travis Dennis (Freshman)