Pacific University’s Men’s Soccer team is feeling confident about the upcoming season. Though several point-contributing senior players left last season, this year’s team is still stacked with promising talent.
The team sees excellent potential in many of the new freshmen players. The Head Coach for Men’s Soccer Eric Mild said freshmen Cade Taniguchi, Brock Jones, Grant Garcia, and Danny Fazio have all performed well in recent games.
According to Mild, performing with consistent quality will be an area of focus for the team throughout the season. The soccer team hopes their efforts will be enough to get them through their scheduled conference games.
Time will also be used this season to allow players to improve communications and to work on team chemistry and bonding.
“I believe we are going to focus on improving the little things for now,” Defender Keillian MacCulloch said. “We hope to improve on getting more shots, less fouls and be able to get more comfortable around each other as a team.”
The Boxers have played two non-conference games. One on Sept. 7 against Wisconsin Lutheran, where they won 3-0, and one on Sept. 9 against Warner Pacific, where they lost 0-3.
According to Mild, the performances in the two games showed how much the players grew as a team since coming back from a trip to Minnesota.
“It feels great to be able to play on our home turf again,” MacCulloch said. “It’s great to be playing on familiar grounds with support from our fans in a passionate environment.”
The Men Soccer team will be playing in their first conference games this week. There will be matches against Whitman College on Sept. 14 and Whitworth University on Sept.16.
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