Looking at the Bradford boys soccer team’s roster, you might notice next to the players’ names where it says “grade” how many 11s, 10s, and 9s there are as opposed to 12s.
But head coach Wes Lohrman — entering his 13th season at Bradford — sees the relative youth of his 2017 squad as an advantage due to the fact that so many of those underclassmen have already seen varsity playing time.
“This will be a younger team, albeit a competitive one,” he said.
The Owls feature just three seniors on this year’s roster — Jake Johnson, Brent Kennedy, and Jared Lucas.
But of the 11 letterwinners and nine starters returning from the 2016 group that went 8-10, a good portion of them are now juniors and sophomores. Lohrman notes that a very strong sophomore class in particular has developed well both technically and tactically in the offseason.
He also mentioned how the time his players put in on the field in the summer can only help once the fall season gets underway.
“This group of players has spent a lot of time working in the offseason,” Lohrman said. “It’s almost becoming where soccer in this area is now turning into a year-round sport.”
The biggest advantage Lohrman sees this year’s team having over last year’s is the overall depth throughout the roster, something that’s been evident in summer practices and scrimmages.
“We’ve been able to interchange players without any real drop off in technical ability or tactical understanding of what’s happening on the field,” he said.
With the tough D-9/10 schedule that once again awaits the Owls, they will need contributions from every last man.
“We do not have any games on a weekly basis where we can say, ‘All right, we’re going to rest some players,’” Lohrman said. “Every game that we play is physical. Every game that we play is competitive. And now having that depth that we didn’t really have last year is going to help us move forward this season.”
Finding the back of net shouldn’t be a new challenge for the Owls; they lost just six of the 32 goals they scored last season to graduation.
Sophomore Colton Swanson paced the team with 14 goals last year as a freshman. He and Kennedy (three goals in ‘16) figure to be Lohrman’s go-to guys in the attacking third of the field.
“They were two of the players that spent time this offseason really getting used to how the other guy plays,” Lohrman said. “Last year, they might not have always been on the same page over the course of a game. They’ve turned each other’s weaknesses into positives and have used that to get a lot of better looks towards the goal.”
Swanson and Kennedy will form the point of the spear of Bradford’s 4-4-2 formation, though Lohrman envisions plenty of in-game changes depending on who the Owls are playing on any given night.
“Staying with that 4-4-2 allows us to really flex into a lot of different looks based on what we’re seeing and what we’re up against,” he said.
Operating in the central midfield will be Lucas, junior Mike Bosworth, and sophomore Ayron Hart. Manning the wings will be a combination of juniors Rob Jimmerson and Cadyn Sutherland and sophomores Alex Marone and Ian Grady, who will look to create scoring opportunities by pushing the ball forward and sending crosses into the box.
Johnson, juniors Brett Degolier and Jason French, and sophomores Ryan Miller and Brennan Grady form a strong backline who Lohrman says have a better understanding of the defensive system.
They will operate in front of sophomore goalkeeper Evan Schmidt, who is coming off an injury that forced him to miss the end of the 2016 campaign. Lohrman says he is healthy and ready to go. Schmidt will be backed up by freshman Gavin Piscitelli.
Rounding out the Owls’ lineup are junior Collin Haskins, sophomores Colton Nichols, Matt Franz, Alex Marone, Isaiah Pingie, Drew Auteri, Hugh Kennedy, Jacob Maley, Kyle Auteri, and Noah Neel, and freshmen Ciaran Conneely, Jon Komidar, Gavin McGee, Ethan Little, Conner Maze, and Ethan Tate.
The Owls begin their season today when they visit Coudersport.
September
2 – at Coudersport
6 – CATHEDRAL PREP
12 – FORT LEBOEUF
14 – at Saegertown
16 – FRANKLIN
18 – at Ridgway
20 – GENERAL MCLANE
23 – at DuBois
26 – at Warren
28 – at Fort Leboeuf
30 – at Meadville
October
2 – SAEGERTOWN
5 – at General McLane
7 – at Erie
10 – DUBOIS
12 – WARREN
16 – MEADVILLE
19 – PORT ALLEGANY
