Pete Caringi III should continue to develop into one of the conference's best players as a sophomore.

After back-to-back tremendous seasons and making it to the second round of the NCAA tournament last year the expectations for a successful men’s soccer team are there again for the squad to win a championship. This squad may actually go deeper despite losing an All-American and several other key graduates.

“If you have success the bar is going to raise a little bit but from my standpoint as the head coach of the program the goals have stayed the same,” said Coach Pete Caringi Jr., who is entering his 21st season at the helm of the Retriever team.

“Obviously the goal week one is to win a championship; we’ve never gone into any year where the goal isn’t to win a championship.”

ATTENTION: The full men’s soccer team preview can be found on Catonsville Patch.

Pete Caringi III should have a much larger role on the team in 2011.

NSCAA and College Soccer News, a highly respect media outlet focusing on college soccer, released their preseason Top 30 list and though UMBC was not on it, they received votes and were just outside of it.

Last season the Retrievers reached a new height of success, reaching the second round of the NCAA tournament after coming back to beat national power Princeton on the road, 2-1.

The Retrievers will be without a few key contributors from last year, notably Levi Houapeu, who led the nation in scoring over the past two seasons, and senior defensive midfielders Chris Williams and John Paul Waraksa, but the team still returns a lot of talent and has reloaded in a few areas.

Andrew Bulls went from being one of the nation’s top scorers in 2009 to one of the nation’s leaders in assists in 2010, and should continue to play at an All-American level. Meanwhile, Pete Caringi III showed he was ready to be an elite scorer as a freshman while Nirav Kadam return after playing his first season in a Retriever uniform and JuCo All-American Kadeem Dacres has been added to the squad.

In the midfielder incoming freshman Zach Wenger was considered to be one of the best recruits in the nation and has plenty of experience playing at a high level on the junior national team, playing against the best players in the world at his age. Sean Rothe is also returning after having to sit out all of last season with a knee injury. Milo Kapor, Dave Vaeth, Andy Streilein, and Kingsley Onwuka are all back as well.

Defensively Liam Paddock and Daniel Welsh proved to be a winning combination as the team’s center back duo last season. Returning with that young duo is right back Vince Savarese, a staple of the team’s back line for the last three seasons, Jason McCarron, who battled through injuries the last year and a half but played at an elite level before he got hurt in his sophomore year. Spencer Williams and Travis Dennis are also back after gaining valuable experience last season.

The goalie position is still stocked full of talent and as is the story every year Dan Louisignau, Phil Saunders, and Miguel Calderon will battle in the preseason for the starting job, but no matter who comes out the winner the team will be in good shape.

A deeper preview will be release closer to the start of the season.

Junior Phil Saunders shut out his opponent to win a National Championship.

Heading into the 2011 collegiate soccer season five of UMBC’s soccer players plays for the Baltimore Bays U-19 summer team and recently won the National Championship. The Bays Chelsea team beat the Chicago Fire Juniors, 2-0, to claim the 76th McGuire Cup championship and 11th national title.

On the team from the Retrievers men’s soccer team were forward Pete Caringi, defender Travis Dennis, midfielder Milo Kapor, goalkeeper Phil Saunders, and midfielder Dave Vaeth.

Saunders won the tournament’s gold glove award, which goes to the top coal keeper, after recording the shutout in the finals.

After winning both the Maryland and regional championships the Bays Chelsea team tied the Dallas Texans, 2-2, in their first game in the national tournament bracket before beating Sereno of Arizona, 4-1, and tying Chicago, 1-1, before bearing them in the National Title match.

Saunders, Kapor, and Vaeth will be juniors in the upcoming season while Caringi will be a sophomore and Dennis will be a red-shirt sophomore.

Phil Saunders saved seven shots, but the UMBC defense got burned on two set plays.

Having a week off between games after Wednesday night’s showdown with Loyola University was canceled may have taken the men’s soccer team out of a rhythm.

Sunday night the team traveled to New Jersey and came back with a 2-1 loss to Fairleigh Dickinson University.

The Knights made their presence felt right away. They scored in just the sixth minute when Samson Malijani flicked in a rebound off a score of a free kick by Dominic Reinold.

FDU ripped off eight shots in the first half and matched that total in the second half.

Five minutes into the second half Milijani was in the right place at the right time again as he doubled FDU’s lead with a header off another Reinold free kick.

UMBC was finally able to get a goal in the 56th minute when Levi Houapeu converted a penalty kick for his seventh score of the year, but the Retrievers chances were limited by the FDU defense, as they allowed just four second half shots.

Sophomore goalkeeper Phil Saunders recorded a season-high seven saves in the loss.

Freshman Pete Caringi III has made a huge impact this year and scored the game winning goal against Mount St. Mary's

After trailing by two goals at halftime the men’s soccer team looked to be on their way to their third straight road loss to start the season. But they didn’t pack it up and came out on fire in the second half, scoring three goals, erasing their deficit at halftime.

Mount St. Mary’s managed just two shots in the entire first half, but came away with a goal from both of them. That forced Coach Pete Caringi to make a change, and in replacing sophomore Phil Saunders was junior transfer Dan Louisignau, who didn’t let one of Mount St. Mary’s six shots in the second half by.

But helping his cause was a much stronger offensive effort. In the 53rd minute UMBC finally got on the board when senior centerback Chris Williams headed a ball into the goal off a free kick. Ten minutes later senior Levi Houapeu scored his sixth goal of the season off another free kick, both goals were assisted by Andrew Bulls, who has six this season.

UMBC was finally able to move ahead in the match when freshman Pete Caringi III netted his fourth goal of the year off an pass from sophomore Milo Kapor.

Once they had the lead they didn’t turn back. The mount did have a chance to tie the game at the end, when Eric Detzel ripped a shot with just five seconds remaining, but Louisignau came up with the save to give the Retriever’s their first road victory of the year, 3-2.

Just a few days after a 5-3 loss to Towson in which the team just did not play well, they lost again, this time to Naval Academy, 2-0.

UMBC outplayed Navy in the first half. They constantly pressured their defense and nearly scored on several occasions, but with three minutes remaining in the first half Navy caught a lucky break as Patrick Sopko flicked the ball above UMBC goalie Phil Saunders’ head, sending the mids into halftime with a 1-0l lead.

The Retrievers, however, did not play with nearly as much intensity in the second half as they did in the first. The retrievers really struggled to control the ball, and were out-shot, 10-8. The retrievers had very few good possessions in the half and after switching to a 3-4-3 in hopes of scoring goals, they were caught again and that second goal seemed to completely deflate the Retrievers as they lost, 2-0.

It took the nation's second leading scorer three games to finally get a goal.

Preseason All-American Andrew Bulls finally scored his first goal of the season after coming extremely close in the first two games. Meanwhile, senior forward Levi Houapeu scored his fourth and fifth goals of the season with two against beltway rival Towson University. But their efforts just weren’t good enough as several defensive break downs led to a 5-3 loss.

Towson struck early, scoring two goals in the games first 30 minutes, and after Houapeu scored in the 34th minute to cut the deficit in half, Towson tallied on two more goals to extend their lead to three.

Bulls and Houapeu then scored back-to-back goals in a span of three minutes. In the 77th minute Bulls blasted in a pass from Milo Kapor, and in the 80th minute Houapeu converted a penalty kick.

But that would be all for the Retrievers as instead of tying the game with a fourth goal, they allowed a fifth goal in the 88th minute which essentially ended the game.

Despite losing UMBC managed to outshot Towson 15-11, however, starting goalkeeper Phil Saunders came up with just one save in 68 minutes before being pulled for Miguel Calderon, who also failed to save the lone shot he was faced with.

Nirav Kadam scored one goal and has two assists in his first game as a Retriever.

UMBC beat V.M.I. 5-3, and Houapeu and Bulls only combined for four points.

UNC-Greensboro transfer Nirav Kadam and freshman Pete Caringi led the Retrievers with four points each. Kadam scored one goal and had two assists while Caringi scored two goals in his first career game.

“We know we got some guys who are capable of scoring goals but obviously it was the first game and obviously guys had their chances and Andrew and Levi are going to get their chances,” Caringi said.

Thought Kadam is new to the team, he’s not new to the team. Kadam transferred to UMBC last spring in order to have more time to learn the team’s playing style and a chance learn the tendencies of the other players, and that extra four months of practice really look to be a big help for his already quality game.

“I wanted to come in the spring and learn their style of play and their players,” Kadam said. “It was a great opportunity to come in the spring and just have fun with the guys.”

But more impressively was Caringi, who in his first career game looked like an established senior. While he missed a few chances to score more goals, his two goals both came off pure hustle, and good finishing of course.

His first goal was nearly a nixed play. Kinglsey Onwuka passed the ball inside to Caringi just a few feet in front of the goal. Caringi nearly missed the shot but he slide the ball around the goalkeeper and got it in the far front corner of the goal. His second on came off a blocked shot from Bulls, which he sprinted up the field to clean up for.

The coaches son might wind up starting is he plays like he did against VMI again.

“We should expect what we did today- a lot of goals,” Caringi said. “We’re going to miss over opportunities but we’re going to have a lot more. Our defense give us good through balls and our midfield works hard, and we’re all good at finishing.”

The third member of that impact trio was Danny Shannon, a senior transfer from American University. Shannon scored the games first goal at 18:55. After Kadam kicked the ball up to Houapeu, Houapeu paced the ball perfectly and Shannon shot it without even looking, and sure enough it went in to the upper left corner of the goal.

Shannon returned the favor as those three were in on another goal, but this time it was Shannon who flicked the Kadam pass to Houapeu for the goal.

While the offense showed they are just as good, if not better, as least year’s unit, the midfield and defense had a few breakdowns. After leading 3-0 at halftime Coach Pete Caringi made a goalie change, replacing starter Phil Saunders with Dan Louisignau in order to get him some playing time on the field after having of redshirt in 2009 because of a torn labrum.

Louisignau allowed three goals, but not all of them were is fault, the defense appeared to be “winded” according to Caringi, mostly because of the “very hot and very humid” temperatures.”

“I just thought it was some communication problems, it was a mental let down,” Caringi said.

Fortunately for UMBC is they have a long season to improve that, and as players get back healthy they should be back to where they left off last year.

“I don’t think we can tell yet how good our offense is going to be or in turn how good out defense is going to be,” Caringi said.

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)

Andrew Bulls

While last year teams were not expecting much from UMBC, this year teams will be gunning for them. They may have been picked to finish third in the AEC preseason coaches poll but with every significant player returning from last year’s team (the only losses were Jamal Molin (6 games), who decided to focus on his academic career- he was a Meyerhoff Scholar Athlete, and Matt Knight (3 goals, 2 assists, 13 games) they won’t be a shock at all.

For fans the expectations may be to have another very successful year, or even win a championship, and they certainly have the talent to do so, but Caringi took a much more modest approach to his team.

“It’s really going to be a developmental thing,” Caringi said. “There are a lot of returning players but there is also a lot of quality new players and it’s going to be all about trying to mend those guys and trying to build something that we get better throughout the year.”

Last year UMBC was carried on the backs of Levi Houapeu (15 goals, 13 assists) and Andrew Bulls (15 goals, 11 assists), who finished one and two in the nation in scoring, respectively. Both of those guys are back, and have every amount of talent to be just as successful, but they might not have to be. The one major downfall for UMBC last year was that as the season wore on both Houapeu and Bulls were being man-marked by defenders and had very few good scoring chances, and the team just could not find a third player to pick up the offense. But this year the team will feature a load of scorers that should help the two out, as well as the rest of the team.

Levi Houapeu

Nirav Kadem and Dan Shannon are both highly touted transfers coming into the program with a lot of success scoring. Kadam did not play last year at UNC Greensboro, but is a very fast striker that gets pasts defenders. Shannon was American University leading scorer last season, and should also be another immediate impact on the men’s soccer team.

“Nirav, he can score…Danny Shannon was the leading scorer at American University, both of them are transfers with reputations to being able to score goals,” Caringi said.

But joining that mix of players up front will be Caringi’s son, Pete Caringi III, who comes into UMBC after being names All-Metro and Second-Team All-State as a senior after scoring 15 goals with 6 assists at Calvert Hall College High School.

As if the offense wasn’t stacked enough with five players who can score the ball, the midfield has a load of players who should be better at scoring the ball. Milo Kapor and Mark Lubetkin both scored two goals late in the season as freshmen, and both should be much better with a year’s experience. Another option could be Dustin Dzwonkowski, who has gotten better and become a more confident scorer each year he’s played.

I think we have a broader spectrum of players who we can count on and I think that excites me more than just having one or two players who you have to depend on,” Caringi said.

UMBC certainly has a high-powered offense but the defense is a very underrated group full of talented players.

In the defensive midfield UMBC will feature seniors John Paul Waraksa and Sean Rothe, two workhorses who will do what ever it takes to get the job done. With Houapeu being healthy last year and able to be a scorer, Waraksa was able to transition from being an offensive threat to being a defensive player, a spot in which he’s much more comfortable.

John Paul Waraksa

“John Paul had a breakout year last year, I though he was one of our best players,” Caringi said. “He’s very determined this year to go out with a bang and have a really good season, and Sean, you put both of them in the midfielder, they’re both hard workers, they’re both similar players, they’re both hungry for us to do better.”

Rothe will be out of action for the first few weeks with an injury but should be back at either defensive midfield or back about a month in.

“Sean has had a little bit of an injury and he’ll be out the first couple weeks but just knowing you have that veteran presence always helps and I think they’ll stabilize this team,” Caringi said.

While the outside positions on defense are a bit in question due to injuries, the UMBC defense will feature two of the best centerbacks in the conference. Senior Chris Williams was a First-Team All-Conference selection last year and has started pretty much since the moment he stepped on campus. Sophomore Liam Paddock started every game he played and earned all-rookie honors last season.

“The defense had a good year last year and to be very honest they didn’t have a good spring,” Caringi said. “It will be interesting this preseason because I thought Liam and Chris had very good years last year. Chris has been very consistent throughout his three years, he’s also an all-conference player, he’s also the captain of the team so I expect him to pick up where he left off last year so now it’s about finding player who compliment those two players. The pool of players is going to be a lot and the best four is going to be the best four who will be playing back there.”

Liam Paddock

Outside those two last year were Vince Savarese and Jason McCarron. Savarese is not the most physically imposing player, but he makes up for every short coming with pure grit. McCarron suffered an injury last year against Loyola, and that injury just progressed into something worse, but he could be back by the start of the season. If he’s not, with Rothe out that backline spot could go to freshman Spencer Williams or midfielders Andy Streilein or Dave Vaeth, both of whom have played the position this preseason.

But when all else fails UMBC should have one of the leagues top goalies, not matter who they choose. UMBC will be going through a very interesting three man goalie battle this year. Incumbent starter Phil Saunders is coming off an All-Rookie Team Honors. Dan Louisignau, who may have started last year if it weren’t for a torn labrum early in the season, is an incredibly established goalie. He transferred from ACC power Virginia and won multiple national championships at the club level. And finally, Miguel Calderon is just a hard worker that has improved a great deal since last year.

“I’m approaching it like I approach everything else,” Caringi said. “Phil is the returning keeper but at the end of the day positions will be won on the field it won’t be won by reputations. Dan brings a great resume and brings a lot of success at the highest level. He’s won a lot of national championships and transferred in from Virginia. Miguel is one of our hardest working players and is great for this team. He busts his tail every practice, and in another program he probably could be a starter this year, and maybe he does this year but all three will be competing every day in practice. Phil’s the incumbent so at the end of the day people have to show me they’re a lot better than Phil, or Phil’s dropped off, but I find these situations are always resolved on the practice field, not in the locker room.”

Phil Saunders

What is going to make UMBC so special this year is going to be that they are going to be so deep and have their choice of any 11 players starting. Players like freshman defender Daniel Welsh, junior midfielder Kinglsey Onwuka, sophomore midfielder Ben Hanson, and freshman defender Travis Dennis will all make very big impacts on the team as well.

“I think the key to the season will be the mixture of players, the chemistry, the blending in of different players and different backgrounds, and at the end of the day it’s really about trying to get the best 11 players to perform up to a certain level,” Caringi said. “Coming into preseason there’s a lot of player amount wise, as many as we’ve ever had here, and I think the quality is going to be really high and that’s the competitive part about now trying to mix this group together and seeing where we can go with it.”

But the key to any team in any year it to avoid a let down. The AEC is going to be a very tough conference and aving UMBC picked to finish third despite everything they did last year is a sign of that. The always dangerous Boston University had a disappointing year last year but should be right back where they were in 2008. Reigning champions Stony Brook University returns with every player from last years squad, and Hartford and Binghamton will as always, reload. Albany and Vermont should also be much better in 2010.

“This conference is a little like the NFL,” Caring said. “You can have a down year one year and that doesn’t make any difference in the next year. It’s a wide open conference, you can sit here and speculate who’s going to be really good and who’s not and I think everybody is going to be really good.”