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2016 UD Men's Soccer Preview
2016 UD Men's Soccer Preview
Christopher Rieman
Published by Chris R
08-22-2016
Smile 2016 UD Men's Soccer Preview

Looking ahead to the 2016 UD Men’s Soccer season, the program has a significant challenge in front of them, albeit one most teams would love to have: outperforming last season’s conference tournament title and NCAA 2nd Rd appearance. It was just the second NCAA bid in program history and first time the Flyers got out of the First Round – a thrilling PK shootout victory at Baujan Field against Oakland. Dayton nearly made the Sweet-16 but fell short in a similar PK shootout three days later against Ohio State.

Still, the season was an all-time best in many ways. Dayton set benchmarks both individually and as a team. Senior MF Amass Amankona was named NSCAA All-American and pulled off the improbable double-dip as both A10 Offensive Player of the Year and Midfielder of the Year. He helped lead a Flyer offense that ranked among the best scoring teams in the nation with 2.52 goals per game. As good as last season was, can UD be even better this year?

NSCAA coaches delighted in piling on the pressure by voting the Flyers 29th in the 2016 Top-25 Preseason Poll. This year’s team is noticeably different than the 2015 squad that finished 13-5-5 (6-2-1) however. It’s worth digging into the weeds to determine if the outsiders recognize the same strengths and weakness as those closer to the program.

PERSONNEL LOSSES

The Flyers must replace their top two scorers from a year ago. Amankona led Dayton in points (13g, 5a), while Maik Schoonderwoerd (11g, 6a) wasn’t far behind. The two of them were foreign imports and both 1st Team A10 players but that’s where the similarities ended; Amankona was 5-5 in high heels while Schoonderwoerd stood 6-6. Originally from Ghana, Amankona was perhaps the best pocket rocket in recent league memory. Gifted with exceptional footwork and able to do business in tight spaces, Amankona was the conduit that linked the Flyer defense to the offense. Whenever UD transitioned on counter-attacks, they did all they could do play through the feet of Amankona – and when they did the results were usually good. Despite leading the team in scoring, he made everyone around him a better player by alleviating pressure, opening up the field, and exploiting the opponents’ weaknesses.

The Dutch-born Schoonderwoerd started his career as a defender, but transitioned into the Flyer offense as a target player over the last two seasons. An easy bullseye to send balls to in the offense, he also provided a wrecking-ball mentality inside the goal box on crosses and set pieces.
Elsewhere, UD also graduated MF/F Anthony Keene, MF Kissima Bojang, MF Brian Bates, and MF/D Alex Amankwaah. Bojang earned 2nd Team All-A10 honors last year while the other three combined for 43 appearances and 1800 minutes on the field.

Defensively, Dayton also loses Carlos Sendin and Andrew Lightner. Sendin started every match last year and logged 2140 minutes – second best on the team. He was under-appreciated in the back line and could have easily found a spot on the A10 All-Conference team. Lightner was an off-and-on starter over the last two and a half seasons and provided additional size and experience in the back line; he started 10 matches in 2015 for 839 minutes played.

Freshmen GK Nathan Wisbey and MF/F Cameron Fragassi, and Sophomores MF Zach Kavanaugh and D/MF Brandon Moore are no longer with the team. All four did not play in 2015.

OFFENSE

The Dayton offense will have new look in 2016 but exactly what that is remains to be seen. Losing your top two goal scorers is not easy to replace and chances are a number of players will get an opportunity to show their stuff and earn a long-term role in the starting lineup.

Senior MF/F James Haupt is the likeliest name to be the heir apparent. A career starter since his freshman year, Haupt logged 2123 minutes last year (third-best) while starting every match for the Flyers. He also finished his junior year third in total points (7g, 7a) – making him the top returning scorer on offense. Haupt is a rugged, durable player that quietly stuffs the stat sheet – but he does things the stat sheet doesn’t account for either. His physicality, work rate, and field sense are very good and while he’s not a prototypical goal scorer in the classic sense, his possession-oriented game translates well into goal-scoring mode when the field opens up and opportunities materialize. A 1st Team All-A10 performer, Haupt is one of the more respected players in the league. Provided he’s healthy, he could have a big senior year.

Alongside Haupt, fellow senior Michael Frasca returns to provide additional punch in the Flyer offense. Frasca (4g, 7a) is a wide attacking player that likes to work near the corner flags, but snooze on him near the goal box and he’s capable of redirecting balls on frame as well.

After Haupt and Frasca, lots of question marks exist however. The other returning goal scorers were not asked to do a lot in 2015, which is no knock on their skills considering those ahead of them in the lineup. But more will be asked of each of them in 2016.

Senior Tommy Harr (1g, 4a) started 20 matches a year ago and played about half of the available minutes on the season. A wide striker, Harr is quick to chase down balls and has a knack for turning the corner near the baseline. If the Flyers want to score lots of goals again, Harr may need to chip in five or six goals and an equal number of assists – numbers he’s capable of reaching.

Junior MF Nick Hagenkord (2g, a1) and sophomore F Kennedy Nwabia (2g) are additional players to keep an eye on. Both combined for less than 700 minutes on the field last season but bring experience and physicality to the Flyer offense. Nwabia is a huge specimen and earned a spot on the A10 All-Rookie Team. MF/F Shane Strunk redshirted last year and will get a chance to show his stuff as well.

If there’s an “X” factor that could surprise however, it may be senior MF/F Rafael Gamboa (1a), a former stalwart in the starting lineup who appeared in just eight matches a season ago for 228 minutes played. Gamboa is a bit undersized but so too was Amankona. More importantly, Gamboa has shown flashes of consistent excellence over his career, only to be sidelined from bangs and bruises or head-scratching funks of production. He’s a good solid player however and – at his best – is one of the best 11 on the roster. The key is consistency.

DEFENSE

While the Flyers had one of the highest-scoring offenses in the country last year, the defense wasn’t half-bad either. Surrendering a 1.22 GAA in 2015, we expect that number to improve this season.

The biggest reason why: the return of senior central defender Lalas Abubakar. The Ghanaian native started every match last year and logged more minutes (2177) than any other player on the team. Gifted with exceptional speed and athletic ability, those physical tools sometimes overshadow his equally-strong technical skills that serve him well as a back line player. Abubakar played for the PDL’s Michigan Bucks in the offseason and earned All-PDL honors as well as the coveted PDL Defender of the Year award. He’s one of the league’s top prospects and one of college soccer’s most consistent defenders. He might be UD’s best 1 vs. 1 defender since Flyer All-American Denny Clanton and has an honest chance at the next level.

Abubakar has help however. Also returning are seniors Ben Emery and Coletun Long, along with juniors Dillon Nino and Michael Brezovsky. Emery started eight matches a season ago while Long played in 17 and started 13. Long is a player that deserves more respect – he’s not flashy but he punches his timecard every match. Likewise, Nino played in 16 matches a year ago with 13 starts to his credit. Brezovsky played in 14 games and started seven. Former Creighton transfer Blake McNellis played in 3 matches last year and is another option, while junior Aidan Bean has yet to see the field in his first two seasons. Junior Lance Gaspar (six career appearances) will also be in the mix.

Senior GK Justin Saliba (1.20 GAA) started 17 matches last season, while junior Oliver Hansen (0.98 GAA) started six. Both are solid options depending on who’s got the hot hand. Junior Anthony Flowers, a former Wright State transfer, has yet to appear as a Flyer.

Overall, UD has enough bodies and experience to fill in the gaps left by graduation. A year older, strong, wiser, and hopefully better, the Flyer defense has a chance to be pretty darn good. And they may have to be considering how much offensive production graduated in the offseason.

NEWCOMERS

Starting with UD’s newcomers that bring international experience, graduate transfer 5-10 MF Louis Perry hails from Hertfordshire, UK, while 5-9 frosh F Rok Taneski arrives from Slovenia. Not to be outdone, two Spaniards join the Flyers: 6-0 frosh D/MF David Lianes (Madrid) and 5-9 junior MF Alvaro Navarro (Navarra). Finally, 5-8 MF Daniel Dos Santos (Gland, Switzerland) and 6-1 GK Federico Barrios (Cali, Colombia) round out the eclectic mix of world travelers.

Additional stateside newcomers include a trio of Illinois natives in 6-0 D/MF Louis St. John (Clarendon) , 5-10 D Kevin Reilly (Libertyville), and 6-1 D Sean Kim (Hoffman Estates). St. John was an NSCAA HS All-American, while Reilly was 1st Team All State.

Keaton Joseph (Indianapolis) is a 5-10 MF and three-time NSCAA HS All-American. Trent Stigler (Prospect, KY) is an All-State midfielder from the Commonwealth, while Bennett Lehner arrives all the way from Camas, Washington as the Gatorade State Player of the Year.

Head Coach Dennis Currier has a lot of fresh faces that address a number of needs offensively and defensively. Like most recruiting years, he looked internationally to fill in some of the blanks – some of those players are a bit older and more experienced. Combined with some very good Yankee talent, is looks like a solid recruiting haul and it’s a safe bet at least a couple of the newbies will play early and often. With a reconstituted Flyer offense, perhaps those with scoring ability will be called upon first.

THE SCHEDULE

Dayton opens the season on Friday Aug. 26th at Cleveland State, followed by the home opener against Western Michigan two days later at Baujan Field. Two home games the following weekend against St. Francis (PA) and Belmont give the Flyers a reasonable chance of starting the season on a good note. UD travels to North Carolina-Wilmington for a tournament, playing the host Seahawks on Sept. 9th and Marist on the 11th. Familiar non-con foe IP-Fort Wayne visits UD on Sept. 17th. UD hits the road for three straight matches against Bowling Green (Sept. 20th), Oakland (Sept. 24th), and Liberty (Sept. 27th) to finish off the non-league schedule.

A10 play starts on Oct. 1st with a road match at UMass, followed by two home games the following week against Fordham and St. Louis. St. Bonaventure (Oct. 15th) and LaSalle (Oct. 19th) comprise the last two-game road trip of the year. The Flyers are home for two consecutive Saturday matches against Rhode Island (Oct. 22nd) and Duquesne (Oct. 29th), then complete the conference schedule with a match at VCU on Nov. 5th.

The Flyers cannot do much to control their league schedule, but non-conference schedule remains largely in their own hands. Is the non-league schedule good enough to manufacture an NCAA at-large resume’ if UD takes care of business? Unlikely.

Last season, the Flyers finished #51 in the RPI and outside of serious consideration for an at-large bid, relegating the postseason ticket to the automatic bid coming as the A10 Tournament champion. We see the 2016 schedule shaping up much the same way. UNCW (#63) and Oakland (#65) are the highest RPI teams on the non-league schedule, with Western Michigan (#68) not far behind. Bowling Green (#98) is the only other team in the Top-100. The real damage comes at the bottom however as IPFW (#181), Liberty (#188), and Belmont (#191) are among the bottom 30 in the NCAA out of 206 programs. Marist (#164) is not too far away either.

Without any Top-25 non-conference opponents – let alone Top-50 – it relegates Dayton to a familiar position they have subscribed to in recent years – putting their eggs in one basket by winning the automatic bid from the A10 Tourney. If you can consistently win the tourney, there’s nothing to worry about. But the Flyers aren’t quite there yet.

WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN


A key to the season is a good start. There aren’t any David vs. Goliath matchups in the non-conference portion of the schedule. Every opponent has legitimate flaws and can be beaten. Even a couple early ties might feel like a victory – especially on the road to start the season. If UD can make some progress in the pre-conference schedule, it will set them up nicely for the A10 season and provide a shot in the arm.

The Flyers lost a ton of firepower on offense – not just goal production but possession and stability on the pitch. Dayton must figure out a way to hold the scoring down on defense while the offense learns how to manufacture goals with the new personnel. That means a GAA of less than 1.00 to start the season -- enough of cushion to give the offense a fighting chance to grind out a few results while they figure things out. As the offense matures and players accept their roles, the defense can afford to take a few more chances themselves – perhaps pushing forward.

Abubakar needs to be as good as he can be and play at a high level every night – a level worthy of the title of best defender in the A10.
Perhaps most important, UD needs to value possession. Amankona was a huge luxury between the goal boxes and provided an abundance of sustained possession with the ball at his feet. UD needs to avoid the temptation to play kick-and-run and instead show some patience; the other team cannot score if they don’t have the ball. Get players involved early in the season and develop on-field chemistry through combination passing and long stretches of possession soccer.

WHAT CAN’T HAPPEN

Dayton failed to score in both exhibition matches against UW-Milwaukee and SIU-Edwardsville, a further indication that last year’s top-scoring offense is a work-in-progress right now. But it can’t be like that in perpetuity. The Flyer defense surrendered just one goal in both scrimmages – a good sign. Unfortunately, Dayton still managed a tie and a loss. The offense that Flyer fans see in late August can’t be the offense taking the field in late October.

Injuries to key players might put the kibosh on things. Haupt and Abubakar need to be on the field every night logging heavy minutes.

The Flyers can’t afford to limp the newcomers along. UD needs a few fresh faces to make an early impact –first and foremost at forward and midfield positions. If one or two players cannot ring the bell, perhaps UD can tag-team the challenge with lots of numbers and wear opponents down, though we find that option unlikely given the coaching staff’s inclination to play a short bench most of the time.

UD can’t bow out early in the A10 Tournament – but first they need to qualify and nothing should ever be taken for granted. We still think it’s the only realistic way into the NCAA Tournament.

PREDICTIONS

Last season was as good as it gets for UD men’s soccer. But this is a new team with a new look and different needs and challenges ahead of them. In order to be successful they need to embrace who they now are, not who they were a season ago. Fans need to provide some rope to do just that. The A10 coaches and national pollsters don’t read a lot of offseason press clippings, study rosters, and interrogate schedules. They vote on what they know – and what they know relies largely on what happened in 2015. Flyer fans should take a step back and give this team some time to find their new identity because it’s doubtful Head Coach Dennis Currier’s team will have all the answers in the first couple weeks of the season. It might even take the entire non-conference schedule (or longer).

It’s a team that can and should get better as the season progresses, but there are many question marks that simply cannot be ignored.

First, the offense may take a step back in order to take a step forward. It’s hard to replace an All-American along with a 6-6 sasquatch in the Flyer offense and not skip a beat. We’re not sure Dayton is at a sustained level to do that yet.

That said, we’re cautiously optimistic about the defense. The pieces are solid. Abubakar is a stud, Long is vastly underrated, and guys like Nino and Emery bring considerable experience. We think a newbie will challenge for playing time back there as well.

UD plays well at home too. The players and coaches love the atmosphere at Baujan Field and it’s a healthy home field advantage – especially late in the season when the stakes go up for A10 seeding.

Still, other teams have gotten better too. Some teams were not as strong a year ago and bring back more firepower. No one in college soccer stands still in a vacuum – you’re either getting better or getting worse.

And not to be a wet dishrag, but only four A10 teams finished with a record at over above .500 last season – Dayton, GW, St. Louis, and Rhode Island. Unlike past years when the league had two or three possible at-large teams in the mix, it was a one-bid league a season ago. Whether the league will get better or worse remains to be seen. If the league gets better, UD might have a bigger fight on its hands.

We expect high expectations for UD from sources outside the Flyer bubble, but we’re tapping the brakes a bit and anticipating a season of more numerous peaks and valleys. There will be a lot of exploration on the field this year as the coaching staff looks for fresh answers from fresh faces. And we simply can’t dismiss the talent lost to graduation as insignificant. Amankona and Schoonderwoerd were big losses, but don’t discount the departures of Bojang and Sendin either – the latter two were rocks in the lineup. That’s a fearsome foursome capable of earning minutes at a lot of very good programs.

Where UD ends up may largely depend on how much better or worse the A10 is. Not having scouted the league, we’ll assume a repeat of last season or slightly better. Based on that, the Flyers might be a favorite on paper. But paper ballots are oftentimes not worth the paper they are printed on. All the talking happens between a pair of goalposts and 90 minutes of clock and when it’s all said and done, Dayton will end up a dangerous team but perhaps not the team to beat.

A10 Season Prediction:
4th place
A10 Tourney Prediction: Semifinals
No Postseason
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