Nugget Coverage of Lakers Soccer
Playoffs or bust for Lakers men's soccerBy JORDAN ERCIT THE NUGGET
It's the post-season or bust.
Tony D'Agostino not only wants his Nipissing Lakers to be competitive in the OUA East Division standings this season, but the school's men's soccer head coach wants his charges to be in the top half of the table by the time the playoffs come around in late October.
"There's no excuses. If we're not in the playoffs this season that's going to be my fault," said D'Agostino, whose team finished 2010 in seventh place with a 3-10-1 record and opens the 2011 campaign Sept. 2 in Sudbury against the Laurentian Voyageurs before hosting the Trent Excalibur at home Sept. 4.
"I don't expect anything less than at least the playoffs this season."
In his fourth season as head coach of the club, D'Agostino has almost all of last season's crew back, aside from midfielder Steven Piquette and goalkeepers Cory Schwartz and Matt Likuski.
Expected to lead the way on offence are locals Tylor Doell, a third-year attacking midfielder, and Shayn Karn, a fourth-year striker, as well as second-year midfielder Cale England of Carleton Place. They will be backed up by a young squad that includes more than a dozen players with two years of experience or less.
New faces D'Agostino is hoping to see contribute this season include Brampton's Kellie Koroma, Orangeville's Ryan Mantle and Ottawa's Brandon TeBrake.
Andrew Richard, the lone veteran in net, will be in the mix for a spot to replace Schwartz and Likuski as the team's starting goalkeeper.
Whomever wins the starting spot in net may see some more action as the coaching staff will gives the offence more leeway to create. D'Agostino, who usually builds from the back out, said he hopes to utilize some of the team's speed in order to coax more scoring consistency out of a team that scored the second fewest goals (10) in the OUA last season.
"I think we're going to move forward a little bit more this year," D'Agostino said Thursday before both the men's and women's teams headed to Hamilton for exhibition games against the McMaster Marauders. "I've given Shayn Karn a little bit more room and freedom, so I expect a lot of good things from him this year.
"Same with Tylor Doell. Right after he separated his shoulder in the Laurentian game last year (a 2-0 win on Oct. 5) . . . it was difficult, because it's hard to replace that natural speed, the burst that he has."
Meanwhile, the Nipissing Lady Lakers will have some big shoes to fill following a strong 2010 playoff run as well as the loss of two former first-team all-stars.
Striker Leesa Church, the program's all-time leader in goals, goalkeeper Sam Behm, a former national military team member, and midfielder Stephanie Stubbert, a former Nipissing female athlete of the year, have moved on, meaning larger roles for the likes of sophomores Nicole Arromba and Valaine Confesor.
The Lady Lakers will also have a new general on the sideline after former assistant coach David Bitonti swapped roles with Vito Castiglione, the head coach of the program since its inception in 2000.
Despite a large recruiting class of nine rookies — including defender Erin Pomanti of Thunder Bay, midfielder Stefani Giftopoulos of Ancaster and striker Erica Dixon of Orleans — Bitonti is hoping to build on a successful 2010 campaign that included a first-round upset of the Toronto Varsity Blues and an extra-time OUA East semifinal loss to the eventual national-champion Queen's Gaels.
"We're using last year's playoff run as motivation this year to get further," Bitonti said. "We were five minutes away from penalty kicks (against Queen's), and at that point anything can happen."
Among those expected to take a leading role in the offence are Arromba and Confesor, both of whom excelled during their introduction to the OUA game. Arromba was fifth in the league with eight goals and Confesor served as a playmaker for a team that found the net 35 times, the third highest total in the OUA.
Third-years Ashley Poirier and Kaitlyn Ciddio are primed for more responsibility at midfield and defence as well.
"The expectation is they are going to pick it up and they know it," Bitonti said of Arromba and Confesor. "They're pushing themselves and the nice thing is they're not expecting me to put that added pressure on them.
"They themselves have identified that they need to be the leaders on the team along with Ashley Poirier and Kaitlyn Ciddio. They all have to step up and have good years in order for us to be successful."