Temple University Athletics
Friday, August 29
Ambler, Pa.
4:00 pm
Temple University
vs
Drexel
Willie Chalfant
Men's Soccer Kicks Off the 2014 Season With Home Games Against Drexel and Sacramento State This Weekend
8.28.14 | Men's Soccer
Live Stats
PHILADELPHIA – Temple men's soccer kicks off its 2014 season with home games against Drexel on Friday at 4:00 p.m. and Sacramento State on Sunday at 3:00 pm. The Owls will look to improve from last year's record of 10-4-4, 3-1-4 that placed them fourth in the American Athletic Conference.
TEMPLE SEASON OUTLOOK...
Last season the Owls weren't expected to do much by everyone in the conference as they were predicted to finish last in the preseason coaches' poll by each coach. The Owls shocked everyone but themselves with only one loss in conference play and were named the Philadelphia Soccer Six Champions. They will attempt to make the next step under Head Coach David MacWilliams in his 15th season and make the NCAA tournament.
"My expectations for this season are that we continue where we left off last season and build from that," said MacWilliams. "I want us to do well in the conference and be in the NCAA tournament. That is our goal, to be in the tournament. I think we have the potential to do so, and we just have to make sure we don't rely on what we did last year. We need to make sure we come out with that workman like effort, and if we're disciplined the sky's the limit. I think this is one of the most talented teams in my 15 year tenure here at Temple."
Temple has put together a tough non-conference schedule to challenge the team before conference play. After opening up against Drexel and Sacramento State, the Owls will go on the road to face Penn State, Duke, La Salle and Fordham before returning home to face Penn and Delaware. Temple will also travel to Yale during conference play. La Salle and Penn will serve as Temple's two Philadelphia Soccer Six matchups. Including conference play, seven opponents had played in the NCAA tournament last year: Drexel, Penn State, Penn, Delaware, USF, UConn and Tulsa. Also, the Owls are playing Tulsa, Sacramento State and Yale for the first time in program history.
"I think last year was a down year for our conference with the high caliber programs that are in the American," said MacWilliams. "At the coaches' meeting this year, all of the coaches wanted to make sure the conference was back on top. Looking at what the other schools did with recruiting and their players returning, it's going to be a competitive conference. Along with Tulsa joining the conference, we are playing good schools like Duke, Penn State, Delaware, and some good local schools like Drexel that went to the tournament last year. I think this is a tough schedule."
Multiple positions will need to be filled however as the Owls have lost five key contributors to graduation: Nolan Hemmer, Sawyer Hemmer, Jake Lister, Ryan Bradbury, and Vaughn Spurrier. The Hemmer twins Nolan and Sawyer solidified the defense as four-year starters. Lister started 33 games in his career at Temple with six goals and five assists. Bradbury was one of the team captains last year and started all four years for Temple at the midfielder position. Spurrier, the 2013-14 American Men's Scholar Athlete of the Year, performed just as well on the field as he did off of it. He was another four year starter for the Owls and accumulated 40 points in his career, including 10 assists in the 2012 season. Spurrier ranked second on the team last season with eight points and provided game winning goals against Hofstra and Cincinnati in double overtime on senior day.
"The toughest thing for us will be replacing last season's seniors," said MacWilliams. "We had some great leaders who really raised the bar for our program. I think we have the talent to replace these five guys, but will we have the maturity? That's the big question going forward. It's tough to replace them with a freshman with the experience that those seniors had."
Temple still returns a myriad of talent with seven starters and 13 lettermen back. Four of the top five scorers are back for the Owls. Jared Martinelli has led the team in scoring in his first two seasons as an Owl and paced the Owls with six goals and four assists to earn second team all-conference. Chas Wilson returns for his last collegiate season after being tied for second on the team with four goals. Robert Sagel has had a busy offseason as he participated in the Under 20 U.S. National Team Camp in June and July along with Miguel Polley and excelled in the Premier Development League. Sagel was one of the top freshmen last season in the conference and was named to the all-freshman and second-team. Senior Willie Chalfant has been a three-year starter as a midfielder and will be counted on once again as one of the veterans of the team. Stefan Mueller started every game as a defender in his freshman season and ranked second most in minutes played. Matt Mahoney improved throughout his sophomore season and started in seven of the last nine games.
"There's the sophomore slump cliché that is out there, and we have quite a bit of sophomores that played well for us last year. We will probably be having three sophomores starting in the back, and we can't have them go through that slump. Jared Martinelli will be coming back a more experienced player for us. We have Chas Wilson and Willie Chalfant as seniors and a number of other guys returning for us. Another key for us will be to continuing to play the good defense that we had last year. We really can't lose sight of that."
Redshirt-senior Jonah Williams will contend for one of the open starting sports and playing time vacated from the loss of the Hemmer twins. Williams appeared in nine games last season after transferring from San Francisco. Sophomores Dan White, Donovan Fraser, and Matt Mahoney will look to elevate their games from last season to make even more of a contribution. Fraser scored the lone goal in a 1-0 win against rival Villanova to earn Philadelphia Soccer Six Rookie of the Week. Mahoney came on strong at the end of the season and started seven games total. His first goal was the game-winner against Fordham in a 1-0 win. White appeared in four games for the Owls last season. Mark Grasela redshirted last season and will compete for time at the defenseman position. Juniors Josh Tagland and Dalton Andrusko also return for the Owls.
The goalkeeper position might be the Owls' biggest strength. Dan Scheck returns after an excellent season that saw him rank among the nation's best. Playing every single minute in net, Scheck record nine shutouts to tie the school's single-season record. His goals allowed average of 0.67 ranked him 14th overall in the nation. He made 79 saves on the season for a save percentage of .859. Scheck isn't the only goalie on Temple's roster that has showed he can contribute at a high level as Bobby Rosato returns for his senior season after redshirting last year. Rosato has started 30 games for Temple after coming over from UNC Wilmington in 2011. He has made 129 saves in his career and helped the Owls win 14 games. Alex Cagle redshirted last season, and junior Patrick Lestingi returns as well.
"Dan was one of the top two goalies I thought in the conference last year," said MacWilliams. "He really had a tremendous year for us last season. I don't think there was one point last season where I thought he could have done this or that better. We also have a lot of competition for that spot with Bobby Rosato, Alex Cagle, Patrick Lestingi and Joseph Melong who can all get the job done for us.
MacWilliams and assistant Brian Clarhaut have assembled a top-20 recruiting class for the second straight season. Miguel Polley, who redshirted last season, will look to make an instant impact after being ranked the 26th best recruit of 2013 by ESPN. This year's recruiting class has four four-star recruits, one three-star recruits and three international players who have experience on their national teams. Midfielder Brendon Creed was the captain of Trinidad and Tobago's U-17 for CONCAF and CFU Qualifiers. Forward Dinho Zwane is a four-star recruit from Johannesburg, South Africa who played at Trinity High School in Kentucky. Olli Tynkkynen was a midfielder on Finland's U-19 Team. Forward Joonas Jokinen, notorious for his backflip penalty kick that has attracted millions of view on YouTube, was the top scorer in his age group for the Finnish National Team. Forward Tarek Fayed was ranked No. 19 overall in the nation by Top Drawer Soccer. Midfielder Felipe Liborio was ranked No. 52 overall in the nation and scored 39 goals in two season at Castle Park in Chula Vista, Calif. Defender Cameron Johnson is a four-star recruit from Georgia. Goalkeeper Joseph Melong played alongside Sagel at Shattuck St. Mary's for three years. Matt Sullivan was selected to First Team All-Inter-Ac three times at Penn Charter. Jacob Rosenkalt helped lead USSDA Oakwood to a top 20 ranking by Top Drawer Soccer. Tim Rudy lettered three years at Ridley High School. Christos Yiantsos lettered two years at Cheltenham High School, and Roman Spicer was First Team All-State in Louisiana in his senior season.
"We will see quite a bit of these of freshmen who will be competing for these open starting spots and other key roles for us," said MacWilliams. "Competition breeds success, and I think we will have competition at each position. "
DREXEL NOTES...
Drexel won their second consecutive regular season Colonial Athletic Association championships and the program's first-ever CAA tournament title in 2013. They were picked to finish second in the league in a preseason poll of the conference's coaches, earning four first-place votes. Five starters and nine players in total depart from last season's squad. The Dragons went 4-1-2 in CAA play last season, 9-8-4 overall to earn the CAA crown and a second-consecutive berth in the NCAA Tournament. Among the returnees for the Dragons are Third Team All-CAA midfielder Michele Pataia and Third Team All-CAA defender Robert Liberatore. The duo was recognized by the league's coaches, which voted on the preseason team and tabbed Liberatore and Pataia as among the league's top defenders and midfielders, respectively. Drexel also brings back rising sophomore goalkeeper Tyler Afflerbach, who was a member of the All-CAA second team and the CAA All-Rookie squad.
SACREMENTO STATE NOTES...
Sacramento State finished 3-11-4, along with a Big West Conference record of 1-8-1 last season. The Hornets return seven starters from last season, including 2013 Big West all-Freshman team defender Andrew Gosselin. Gosselin was tied for second on the team with two goals last year. Three senior starters return in forwards Chimdum Mez and Adan Martinez and defender Mason McCann. Mez was second on the team in points with two goals and three assists. Eight sophomores return after seeing significant action in their rookie seasons.
ALL-TIME SERIES...
Temple leads the series against Drexel 27-14-4. Temple defeated Drexel 2-0 last year on Oct. 5th.
This is the first meeting between Temple and Sacramento State.
UP NEXT...
The Owls start a four road game trip at Penn State next Friday at 7:00 p.m.
PHILADELPHIA – Temple men's soccer kicks off its 2014 season with home games against Drexel on Friday at 4:00 p.m. and Sacramento State on Sunday at 3:00 pm. The Owls will look to improve from last year's record of 10-4-4, 3-1-4 that placed them fourth in the American Athletic Conference.
TEMPLE SEASON OUTLOOK...
Last season the Owls weren't expected to do much by everyone in the conference as they were predicted to finish last in the preseason coaches' poll by each coach. The Owls shocked everyone but themselves with only one loss in conference play and were named the Philadelphia Soccer Six Champions. They will attempt to make the next step under Head Coach David MacWilliams in his 15th season and make the NCAA tournament.
"My expectations for this season are that we continue where we left off last season and build from that," said MacWilliams. "I want us to do well in the conference and be in the NCAA tournament. That is our goal, to be in the tournament. I think we have the potential to do so, and we just have to make sure we don't rely on what we did last year. We need to make sure we come out with that workman like effort, and if we're disciplined the sky's the limit. I think this is one of the most talented teams in my 15 year tenure here at Temple."
Temple has put together a tough non-conference schedule to challenge the team before conference play. After opening up against Drexel and Sacramento State, the Owls will go on the road to face Penn State, Duke, La Salle and Fordham before returning home to face Penn and Delaware. Temple will also travel to Yale during conference play. La Salle and Penn will serve as Temple's two Philadelphia Soccer Six matchups. Including conference play, seven opponents had played in the NCAA tournament last year: Drexel, Penn State, Penn, Delaware, USF, UConn and Tulsa. Also, the Owls are playing Tulsa, Sacramento State and Yale for the first time in program history.
"I think last year was a down year for our conference with the high caliber programs that are in the American," said MacWilliams. "At the coaches' meeting this year, all of the coaches wanted to make sure the conference was back on top. Looking at what the other schools did with recruiting and their players returning, it's going to be a competitive conference. Along with Tulsa joining the conference, we are playing good schools like Duke, Penn State, Delaware, and some good local schools like Drexel that went to the tournament last year. I think this is a tough schedule."
Multiple positions will need to be filled however as the Owls have lost five key contributors to graduation: Nolan Hemmer, Sawyer Hemmer, Jake Lister, Ryan Bradbury, and Vaughn Spurrier. The Hemmer twins Nolan and Sawyer solidified the defense as four-year starters. Lister started 33 games in his career at Temple with six goals and five assists. Bradbury was one of the team captains last year and started all four years for Temple at the midfielder position. Spurrier, the 2013-14 American Men's Scholar Athlete of the Year, performed just as well on the field as he did off of it. He was another four year starter for the Owls and accumulated 40 points in his career, including 10 assists in the 2012 season. Spurrier ranked second on the team last season with eight points and provided game winning goals against Hofstra and Cincinnati in double overtime on senior day.
"The toughest thing for us will be replacing last season's seniors," said MacWilliams. "We had some great leaders who really raised the bar for our program. I think we have the talent to replace these five guys, but will we have the maturity? That's the big question going forward. It's tough to replace them with a freshman with the experience that those seniors had."
Temple still returns a myriad of talent with seven starters and 13 lettermen back. Four of the top five scorers are back for the Owls. Jared Martinelli has led the team in scoring in his first two seasons as an Owl and paced the Owls with six goals and four assists to earn second team all-conference. Chas Wilson returns for his last collegiate season after being tied for second on the team with four goals. Robert Sagel has had a busy offseason as he participated in the Under 20 U.S. National Team Camp in June and July along with Miguel Polley and excelled in the Premier Development League. Sagel was one of the top freshmen last season in the conference and was named to the all-freshman and second-team. Senior Willie Chalfant has been a three-year starter as a midfielder and will be counted on once again as one of the veterans of the team. Stefan Mueller started every game as a defender in his freshman season and ranked second most in minutes played. Matt Mahoney improved throughout his sophomore season and started in seven of the last nine games.
"There's the sophomore slump cliché that is out there, and we have quite a bit of sophomores that played well for us last year. We will probably be having three sophomores starting in the back, and we can't have them go through that slump. Jared Martinelli will be coming back a more experienced player for us. We have Chas Wilson and Willie Chalfant as seniors and a number of other guys returning for us. Another key for us will be to continuing to play the good defense that we had last year. We really can't lose sight of that."
Redshirt-senior Jonah Williams will contend for one of the open starting sports and playing time vacated from the loss of the Hemmer twins. Williams appeared in nine games last season after transferring from San Francisco. Sophomores Dan White, Donovan Fraser, and Matt Mahoney will look to elevate their games from last season to make even more of a contribution. Fraser scored the lone goal in a 1-0 win against rival Villanova to earn Philadelphia Soccer Six Rookie of the Week. Mahoney came on strong at the end of the season and started seven games total. His first goal was the game-winner against Fordham in a 1-0 win. White appeared in four games for the Owls last season. Mark Grasela redshirted last season and will compete for time at the defenseman position. Juniors Josh Tagland and Dalton Andrusko also return for the Owls.
The goalkeeper position might be the Owls' biggest strength. Dan Scheck returns after an excellent season that saw him rank among the nation's best. Playing every single minute in net, Scheck record nine shutouts to tie the school's single-season record. His goals allowed average of 0.67 ranked him 14th overall in the nation. He made 79 saves on the season for a save percentage of .859. Scheck isn't the only goalie on Temple's roster that has showed he can contribute at a high level as Bobby Rosato returns for his senior season after redshirting last year. Rosato has started 30 games for Temple after coming over from UNC Wilmington in 2011. He has made 129 saves in his career and helped the Owls win 14 games. Alex Cagle redshirted last season, and junior Patrick Lestingi returns as well.
"Dan was one of the top two goalies I thought in the conference last year," said MacWilliams. "He really had a tremendous year for us last season. I don't think there was one point last season where I thought he could have done this or that better. We also have a lot of competition for that spot with Bobby Rosato, Alex Cagle, Patrick Lestingi and Joseph Melong who can all get the job done for us.
MacWilliams and assistant Brian Clarhaut have assembled a top-20 recruiting class for the second straight season. Miguel Polley, who redshirted last season, will look to make an instant impact after being ranked the 26th best recruit of 2013 by ESPN. This year's recruiting class has four four-star recruits, one three-star recruits and three international players who have experience on their national teams. Midfielder Brendon Creed was the captain of Trinidad and Tobago's U-17 for CONCAF and CFU Qualifiers. Forward Dinho Zwane is a four-star recruit from Johannesburg, South Africa who played at Trinity High School in Kentucky. Olli Tynkkynen was a midfielder on Finland's U-19 Team. Forward Joonas Jokinen, notorious for his backflip penalty kick that has attracted millions of view on YouTube, was the top scorer in his age group for the Finnish National Team. Forward Tarek Fayed was ranked No. 19 overall in the nation by Top Drawer Soccer. Midfielder Felipe Liborio was ranked No. 52 overall in the nation and scored 39 goals in two season at Castle Park in Chula Vista, Calif. Defender Cameron Johnson is a four-star recruit from Georgia. Goalkeeper Joseph Melong played alongside Sagel at Shattuck St. Mary's for three years. Matt Sullivan was selected to First Team All-Inter-Ac three times at Penn Charter. Jacob Rosenkalt helped lead USSDA Oakwood to a top 20 ranking by Top Drawer Soccer. Tim Rudy lettered three years at Ridley High School. Christos Yiantsos lettered two years at Cheltenham High School, and Roman Spicer was First Team All-State in Louisiana in his senior season.
"We will see quite a bit of these of freshmen who will be competing for these open starting spots and other key roles for us," said MacWilliams. "Competition breeds success, and I think we will have competition at each position. "
DREXEL NOTES...
Drexel won their second consecutive regular season Colonial Athletic Association championships and the program's first-ever CAA tournament title in 2013. They were picked to finish second in the league in a preseason poll of the conference's coaches, earning four first-place votes. Five starters and nine players in total depart from last season's squad. The Dragons went 4-1-2 in CAA play last season, 9-8-4 overall to earn the CAA crown and a second-consecutive berth in the NCAA Tournament. Among the returnees for the Dragons are Third Team All-CAA midfielder Michele Pataia and Third Team All-CAA defender Robert Liberatore. The duo was recognized by the league's coaches, which voted on the preseason team and tabbed Liberatore and Pataia as among the league's top defenders and midfielders, respectively. Drexel also brings back rising sophomore goalkeeper Tyler Afflerbach, who was a member of the All-CAA second team and the CAA All-Rookie squad.
SACREMENTO STATE NOTES...
Sacramento State finished 3-11-4, along with a Big West Conference record of 1-8-1 last season. The Hornets return seven starters from last season, including 2013 Big West all-Freshman team defender Andrew Gosselin. Gosselin was tied for second on the team with two goals last year. Three senior starters return in forwards Chimdum Mez and Adan Martinez and defender Mason McCann. Mez was second on the team in points with two goals and three assists. Eight sophomores return after seeing significant action in their rookie seasons.
ALL-TIME SERIES...
Temple leads the series against Drexel 27-14-4. Temple defeated Drexel 2-0 last year on Oct. 5th.
This is the first meeting between Temple and Sacramento State.
UP NEXT...
The Owls start a four road game trip at Penn State next Friday at 7:00 p.m.
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