Over a month after playing their last road game, the Quinnipiac men’s soccer team will travel to Fairfield, Connecticut on Saturday, Oct. 5 to take on the Sacred Heart Pioneers for its first MAAC game of 2024. Here’s everything you need to know between now and then.
Where they stand:
Quinnipiac began the year with eight nonconference matchups, going 3-4-1. The Bobcats opened the season with back-to-back road losses to Providence and Rhode Island before embarking on a six-game homestand. The team finished 3-2-1 at home, outscoring opponents 18 to five in Hamden, CT. This included a record-breaking nine-goal outburst against Farmingdale State College on Tuesday, Oct. 1 where 12 Bobcats recorded points.
Quinnipiac will be the last team to kick off conference play as the other 12 schools played conference games last weekend. After finishing ninth in the conference a season ago, the Bobcats were picked to finish sixth in the 2024 MAAC Men’s Soccer Preseason Coaches Poll. Quinnipiac did not have any players selected for the conference preseason team. This marked the lowest the Bobcats had been picked to finish since 2016 (seventh). This was also the last time no Bobcats made the conference preseason team. The Iona Gaels, last season’s top seed, were picked to finish first in the poll, followed by the reigning MAAC Champion Rider Broncs.
Coaching staff:
The 2024 season marks the 20th year of Eric Da Costa’s tenure as head coach of the Bobcats. Da Costa has led his alma mater to a 151-137-61 record, going 60-29-17 in conference play during his time at the helm. The three-time MAAC Coach of the Year helped guide Quinnipiac to five regular-season titles and two tournament titles since the school joined the conference. Last season marked the first time his squad missed postseason play as members of the MAAC and they will look to make a return this season.
Lead assistant coach Matt Jones returns for his seventh year in Hamden, while assistant Sean O’Brien is back for his second. The lone new addition to the staff is assistant coach George Kostelis, who joins the team after two seasons with the CCSU Blue Devils. Kostelis brings over 20 years of coaching experience to the team, including a decade as an assistant coach at Yale from 2001-2011 and his time as a head coach for Western Connecticut from 2011-2016.
Who’s back:
Goalkeeper Karl Netzell, midfielder Noe Cabezas and defenseman Terrance Wilder Jr. were named captains for the 2024 season. Cabezas returns for his second fall in Hamden and is tied for second on the team in goals scored. He made SportsCenter Top Ten earlier this season during the team’s 5-1 victory over CCSU.
Netzell and Wilder Jr. remain as veterans from the 2022 MAAC Championship squad. Wilder Jr. announced during senior day in 2023 that he would join the Bobcats for a fifth year. The defender led Quinnipiac in minutes during his senior season with 1,393. Netzell, a junior, was named to the All-MAAC second team and All-MAAC Tournament team in 2022 and has recorded two shutouts during nonconference play.
Other members from the championship team include defenders João Pinto, Luke Schierenbeck and Erik Langwagen. Midfielders Alex Miller and Drew Seguro will start in the midfield with Cabezas, with Ramesh Delsouz providing depth at forward and Matthew Pisani remaining to back up Netzell. Filip Kangeman, Francisco Ferreira, Gustaf Rosengren and Simon Bakken all have played meaningful minutes in their second season as Bobcats so far.
Newcomers who have seen time:
Da Costa added Joey Saputo Jr. from the University of Connecticut through the transfer portal. After scoring two goals with the Huskies in 2023, the junior forward has one so far this season.
William Holum ranks second on the team during his first collegiate season, while fellow first years Fredrik Moen and Sivert Rysdallsnes have both played over 300 minutes. Pol Mesalles and Benjamin Telle have played meaningful roles in their first season stateside as well.
Nonconference Team MVP – Filip Kangeman:
It has been a breakout season for the senior midfielder as he leads the team in goals, points, shots and shots on goal. Kangeman joined the Bobcats before last season after beginning his collegiate career with the Saint John’s Red Storm. He scored his first collegiate goal in the Bobcats’ 2-0 win over Columbia and hasn’t looked back, finding the back of the net three more times so far and adding two assists. Kangeman is poised to surpass his career-high in minutes and will be an integral piece for Quinnipiac’s offense as they look to return to the MAAC Tournament after falling short in 2023.
New MAAC opponents:
The Pioneers are one of two new members in the MAAC, as the conference also welcomed the Merrimack Warriors of North Andover, Massachusetts. The Bobcats will host the Warriors on Oct. 30, getting the opportunity to play both teams in their inaugural season as MAAC opponents. Quinnipiac is 12-4 all-time against Sacred Heart at the D I level and has won the last four matchups. The last time the teams met came during Quinnipiac’s 2022 MAAC Championship run when the Bobcats defeated the Pioneers 5-0 during nonconference play that season.
As for Merrimack, their matchup in Hamden will mark the first time the two teams have met on the pitch as D I opponents. The two schools formerly belonged to the NE10 conference in D II, where they met in five straight conference tournaments from 1993-1997. Quinnipiac won the initial matchup, but Merrimack would go on to win the other four. The last matchup was a six-overtime championship game that ended 3-2. The teams will look to reignite their rivalry later this season.
Postseason format changes:
To coincide with the expansion of the MAAC, the conference expanded its postseason field from six to eight teams. The top two seeds received a bye under the old format but will now take on the two lowest seeds respectively. The rest of the rules remain the same, with the higher seed of each matchup hosting the game and the bracket reseeding after each round.
Additionally, the MAAC shortened the schedule by removing two conference games for each team. This means Quinnipiac will only play eight conference games instead of 10. This should create even more exciting regular season matchups, as more teams will remain in the postseason hunt later in the season. As mentioned earlier, the Bobcats finished ninth a season ago and under the new format, would’ve only been a point out of a playoff spot rather than seven (teams receive three points for a win and one point for a draw in conference games).
The road ahead:
With the aforementioned schedule changes, Quinnipiac’s schedule consists of four road and four home conference games. After Sacred Heart, the Bobcats will have to travel to Lawrenceville, New Jersey to take on Rider. Then, on Wednesday, Oct. 23, the team will head to Riverdale, New York to face the Manhattan Jaspers. Their final road game of the regular season takes place Nov. 2, when Da Costa’s squad will take the trek up to Niagara Falls, New York to take on the Purple Eagles, the only team the Bobcats defeated in conference play a season ago.
Quinnipiac’s first MAAC home game will be on Oct. 19 against the Marist Red Foxes. Then they will host the Gaels on Oct. 26. After hosting Merrimack and traveling to Niagara, the Bobcats will close out the regular season in Hamden against in-state rival Fairfield on Nov. 6. Quinnipiac would only face Canisius, Mount St. Mary’s, Saint Peter’s or Siena in a potential MAAC tournament matchup. For coverage of Saturday’s game against the Pioneers and to stay up to date with everything Quinnipiac men’s soccer, make sure to follow Q30 Sports on X and Instagram @Q30Sports.
