By Victoria Rutigliano
The Quinnipiac men’s soccer team is eager to take the field this fall seeking to win its fourth straight conference regular season title.
The Bobcats finished their regular season undefeated last year in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. This was the first time they have finished undefeated in conference play since they joined Division I play.
The Bobcats fell to sixth seeded Fairfield 3-1 in penalty kicks in the semi-finals of the 2014 MAAC tournament.
The Bobcats will look to seek redemption against Fairfield on Oct. 21st at home.
Newcomers
After losing six players to graduation, including goaltender Borja Angoitia who missed just six career games, all eyes are on Triston Henry.
Henry spent his first two collegiate years playing for Herkimer County Community College in New York. He led his team to back-to-back National Junior College titles tallying 29 career shutouts including both championships games. After transferring to the University of Connecticut and seeing no playing time in 2014, Henry decided to transfer to Quinnipiac for his red-shirt junior season.
“Triston comes to us with a terrific background and a stellar junior college career,” Head Coach Eric DaCosta said. “He has some very good attributes that should add quality to our program.”
Another transfer, defenseman Mikail Ellis, will join the team as a junior. He started his career at the University of Texas Brownsville. UTB won 24 consecutive games before losing in its conference championship.
Other players added to the roster are freshmen Rashawn Dally, Colton Grob, Christian Casagranda, Chris Dattalo, and Oscar Evans.
A native of New Zealand, Evans won the Mainland Premier League and Canterbury United Youth Player of the Year last season while playing for Canterbury United.
“As a player he is technically sound, has good athleticism and tactical awareness,” Coach Da Costa said. “Oscar is extremely versatile and capable of excelling in multiple positions.”
Who Will Score?
Machel Baker and Raphael Carvalho led Quinnipiac’s offense last year, scoring 15 of the 26 goals it registered. With the departure of both to graduation, new goal-scorers will be crucial to this role.
Juniors James Doig and Ryan Scheiderman as well as senior James Greco are all seasoned players for the Bobcats and know Da Costa’s style. With Doig taking set pieces and corner kicks, Greco facilitating and Scheiderman scoring goals, the team could have a strong offensive unit going into the season.
Awarded Coach
Quinnipiac’s unprecedented success led coach Eric Da Costa to tally many accolades winning him the Northeast Region Coach of the Year award.
Also, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation named Coach Da Costa one of New Haven’s Finest Honorees for his community service, leadership abilities, coupled with his success in his field.
Schedule Overview
After two exhibition games, the Bobcats begin out-of-conference play on the road against Boston College. The team began their last two seasons against BC having been unsuccessful in both matches.
The rest of the out of conference slate is challenging. Quinnipiac will take on two Ivy League teams, Brown and Yale, and will play a Big East contender St. John’s.
Conference play begins on Sept. 26th when they face off against St. Peters.
The MAAC schedule gets tougher as we approach the end of October when the team will play Canisius, Monmouth and Manhattan. These were the only teams last year able to squeeze a point out of the Bobcats.
Since joining the MAAC, both Quinnipiac and Monmouth have won the last two titles. The teams will meet at 7 p.m. on October 10th in West Long Branch, N.J.; this could be a showdown of the conference’s two best teams.
