SEPTEMBER 1, 2017
KING'S MEN'S SOCCER OPENS 2-17 SEASON FRIDAY & SATURDAY WITH MONARCH/ROYAL CLASSIC
WILKES-BARRE — The King's College men's soccer team opens the 2017 season tonight at home against Allegheny College in the first round of the Monarch/Royal Classic at McCarthy Stadium.
King's faces Allegheny today while Centenary plays at the University of Scranton. On Saturday King's hosts Centenary at 3:00 PM while Allegheny travels to meet Scranton.
Fans can follow both King's games on LiveStats at the following link:
http://www.sidearmstats.com/kings/msoc/
Led by head coach Mark Bassett who enters his 12th year as King's head coach. King's is looking to improve on its 9-8-2 mark in 2016 in which the Monarchs advanced to the semifinals of the Freedom Conference Tournament. King's has qualified for post-season play for five straight years, dating back to the 2012 campaign.
Head coach Mark Bassett returns 19 players from last season and welcomes back another who missed the 2016 season with an injury.
Last season's squad possessed a spread-out offense where numerous players reached the scoring column and no individual player posted big numbers. King's did lose its top two scorers but both players combined for eight goals and four assists.
Senior midfielder
Brendan Raab is the top returning scorer from last season with eight points on four goals. The Monarchs do return senior forward
Daniel Lorandini who led the team in scoring in 2015 with 18 points on eight goals and two assists but missed 2016 with an injury.
Returning players joining Lorandini up front include senior
Ian Hogan, juniors
Jonathan Nixon, StevenValencia, and
Marcus Pluas, sophomore
Aidan DeCamillo, and newcomers
Ayrton Omoigui and
Liam McLoughlin.
Returning players in the midfield for King's include juniors
Cassidy Tripolitis,
Dan Lettieri, and
Zach Wolcott, along with sophomores Alistair Dinnan and
Will Brack. Freshmen looking to make an imp at include JoJo Michalek,
Nik Verma,
Sam Pipicelli,
Michael Haggerty, and
Thomas McMahon.
Defensively, returning players include senior
Kevin Mazol, junior
Steven Grebe and
Matt Giangiulio, sophomores Matt Hesse,
August Axtman, and
John Waring, while freshman
Michael Scardelletti is also hoping to contribute. The Monarchs defense has been solid traditionally and have held teams to under one goal per-game the past two seasons.
A big reason for the defensive success also lies in goal, where the Monarchs return junior
Owen Geedey, a two-time All-Freedom Conference choice who posted a 0.90 goals against average last year with 64 saves. Battling for the back-up role are freshmen
Pat Hughes and
Connor McKeown.
KIng's will play an 18-game schedule, including seven Freedom Conference match ups. The Monarchs open their conference slate September 30 against Misericordia University.
