Boston, MA - The Men's Soccer team is just one day away from their season opener when they head up to Vermont to participate in the four-team Northern Vermont University Invitational in Lyndon, VT. The Falcons face-off against NVU-Johnson on Friday at 4:30pm followed by a matchup with host NVU-Lyndon on Saturday with the action set to kick off at 2:30pm. First-year Head Coach, Kyle Yelin, is excited for his team to start strong in the tournament. "We have a group of talented players with diverse skill sets, ready to contribute out of the gate," said Coach Yelin. "The season opening weekend promises to be two tough tests, and will allow us to compete early and dictate our style of play." And with two pre-season scrimmages under their belts, Coach Yelin looks to immediately raise the bar after an extremely successful recruiting campaign which includes 10 transfer student-athletes, seven true freshmen and four International recruits, and to improve on the team's 3-9-2 finish in 2018. "We have been working hard this preseason to start accomplishing our goals on the field. We will command total football approach in the 2019 campaign," said Yelin.
After losing six seniors this past spring to graduation, the Falcons will have some big shoes to fill, losing four regular starters, including defensemen Andrew Leveillee and David Serrano. Leveillee was just one of two players in 2018 to start all 13 contests. Coach Yelin anticipates that his 10 returners will help guide the newcomers to a postseason playoff berth in the Association of Independent Institutions (AII) and a repeat of the Northeastern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship.
The Falcons will be led by senior captains Steven Jagba (Boston, MA) and Kervens Surpris (Pompano Beach, FL). Jagba will anchor the defense with his physical play along with his vocal presence on the pitch, while Surpris, who retains his captain status from 2018, will lead at the midfield position.
Jagba is accompanied in the back third of the field by sophomore Joel Bailey (Derrider, LA), who mostly saw time as a forward in his freshman campaign, finishing with three points. The remainder of the defensive core will be made up of newcomers to include Robert Hitchcock (Ludlow, MA) and Thiago Almeida (Everett, MA), as well as transfers Devin Furphy (Cortland Manor, NY) and Pedro Wagner (Porto Alegre, Brazil). Coach Yelin looks to adopt an approach out of the back that keeps the balls out of their net, while controlling the ball and creating scoring chances for the offense. He will also look to swivel players who will play both defense and midfield to help increase the scoring output from 2018. These players include sophomore Leo Mildor (Pompano Beach, FL), a dymanic and quick-paced player who earned MVP Honors in the NIAC Championship scoring the game winning goal, along with grad student Jonathan Collins (Southwick, MA), transfer Nicolas Shervensquy (RS, Brazil), and freshmen Miguel Garcia-Zuniga (Austin, TX), and Zach Prestigiovanni (Medford, MA).
Surpris, who finished 4th on the squad in shots in 2018, will direct the midfield along with fellow returners Ayoub Bouhaddou (Myrtle Beach, SC) and Marckenzy Dufort (Dorchester, MA) who look to contribute on both sides of the ball. They are joined by transfers Ryan McCassie (Waltham, MA), Fira Lam (Sha Tin, Hong Kong) and Daisuke Suzuki (Yokohama, Japan) along with freshman Christian Millan (El Paso, TX). Coach Yelin expects Surpris to bring his senior leadership and develop a build-up play style, which allows for his midfielders to retain possession and press teams and forcing turnovers. "We want to work hard and be dynamic in our movement to create chances for our forwards," said Coach Yelin. "We want to buildup in numbers, and get the ball up to our very dangerous attacking players, in 1v1 scenarios."
The Falcons attack will feature four players, including two returners Vishal Vaswani (Kowloon, Hong Kong) and Erick Kayongo (Saint Louis, MO) along with newcomers Andree Molina (El Paso, TX) and Marco Savi (Burlington, MA). Vaswani was third on the team with shots on goal in his first year and Coach Yelin is excited for Vishal to increase that total in his sophomore season. "He is a creative player and an attacking presence on the wing, and can utilize his speed to create space and retain possession in the final third." Using the same total football approach as his defenders, the forwards will be expected to create turnovers in the final third of the field, allowing for more scoring chances in the 2019 campaign.
Fisher's net minding group is made up of three talented players, all with different skill sets allowing for some creativity for Coach Yelin's squad. Junior returner Christopher Garcia (Rowland Heights, CA), was the regular starter in 2018, finishing a strong sophomore season allowing just 2.78 goals per game while collecting 38 saves and a shutout. He will be joined by junior transfer Jozef Pineda (Boston, MA) and Ethan Martin (Gilmer, TX), all of whom will be looking to contribute between the pipes.
The Falcons schedule is filled with competitive teams from all over the Northeast, including NIAC opponents Washington Adventist and University of Maine-Fort Kent. This will be the first time the Falcons have faced the WAU Shock, while the Falcons fell twice to the always tough and physical UMFK Bengals last season and will look to avenge the two tough losses to improve their conference record. The Falcons will also face off against numerous NCAA Division III teams to improve their strength of schedule including Coach Yelin's alma mater, Westfield State University, the University of Saint Joseph (CT), Cazenovia and Becker College.
The Falcons are on the road for the first four contests to start the 2019 campaign, but will return home for their home opener on Sunday, September 8th when they play host to the University of Maine-Presque Isle Owls, a team they defeated and earned a tie with in 2018.
The coverage of this weekend's NVU Invitational will include video and live stats, and can be found here.
For a complete look at the Falcons schedule, click here.