Boys soccer team seeing how the pieces fit as season nears

FREMONT – The Fremont Ross boys soccer team is something of a puzzle without a picture to work from.

Coach Alex Coressel knows he has all the pieces, but figuring out how they fit together, and what they’ll look like when combined, remains a bit mystery as the season opens with Monday’s game at Sandusky Perkins.

The Little Giants enjoyed their first winning season in recent memory last year, going 10-7 overall, but whether they can maintain that level of play in 2018 remains to be seen.

“I think field-wise, our first 14-15 guys can hang with a lot of teams, or most teams we’ll play,” Coressel said. “It’s up to these guys where we end up. We could end up with three wins this season or, mapping it out, we could end up with nine or 10.

“We’re still trying to find all the key pieces and battling through injuries,” he added. “We have six guys that all should be starting that are all a little banged up, so we’re trying to nurse through.”

Ross’ biggest unknown comes in goal. The Little Giants have to replace graduated Mikey Contreras, who signed to continue his soccer career at Mount Union and had been the team’s last line of defense for three years. Finding a way to fill in between the pipes will be critical, with sophomore Carlos Pena, senior Caleb Bennison and sophomore Jared Adkins all vying for the job.

Pena, who will likely start Monday against Perkins, has experience having played goal for his club team in Toledo. Bennison, a tall athlete joining the team for the first-time, has the mental make-up Coressel likes in a keeper, while Adkins was Contreras’ back-up last year and is the only one of the three who was on the team last year.

“We’re trying to figure out who it will be,” Coressel said. “It could be one guy gets a half and another guy gets the second half. It’s developing that chemistry with the defense.

“(The job is) Carlos’ to start with but I would not hesitate at any point going to Caleb because he’s an aggressive kid. At our scrimmage against Woodmore he made some saves where it was like, ‘Where the heck did that come from?’ We’re trying to teach him the finer points of the goalkeeping job.”

Whomever is in goal will benefit from a strong, veteran group in front of him. The Little Giants have a wealth of experience on the back-end, with Mason DeWalt, Tim Mosser and Chris Navarro all entering their third or fourth year as starters. They’re being joined in the lineup by freshman Micah Olvera, whose emergence has given Coressel the flexibility to move another multi-year defensive starter, Charlie Corthell, up to

midfield.

Despite all the talent and experience, however, Coressel didn’t want to proclaim his defense as the strength of the team.

“I think we have strengths all over the field,” he said. “I just think it’s nice having experienced guys to rely on. They’re athletic and know what to do, especially Mason, Charlie and Tim.

“They can make up for some mistakes and eat some of those (opposing teams’) chances. We have probably had less shots taken on us in this preseason than we’ve had in the last couple of years just because we have more guys –  which is obviously going to help out our goalkeeper, not having to make as many saves.”

One of the biggest changes from 2017 to 2018 will be at midfield. Not only is Coressel looking at moving Corthell up from defense, he’s taking last season’s leading goal-scorer, Dylan Brady, from the forward position to attacking midfield.

Coressel said Brady’s move is necessary due to the amount of attention he’ll receive being a first-team TRAC honoree last season, having scored 18 goals with seven assists in 2017.

“He’s going to be a marked man,” Coressel said. “Everybody in the league is going to know where he’s at, so his role is going to have to change this year. He’s not going to be able to score 15 or 16 goals like he did the last couple years. It’s going to be about getting his eight to 10 to 12 goals, at the most, and then being able to distribute and get more assists, 8 to 10 assists, is what we need from him.”

Brady’s top targets for distributing the ball will include fellow midfielders Alec Slemmer and Isaac Minor, both of whom are among the Little Giants’ fastest players and Coressel said he believes are primed to have break-out seasons.

Up front, the Little Giants will look to a variety of players to provide balanced scoring. Carter Durbin, Cesar Flores, Kevin Navarro and freshman Haydn Marcee will be looked to give Ross a scoring-by-committee attack.

“It’s got to be,” Coressel said. “Because we know they’re going to try to take away Dylan. So, we need three to four other guys step up and have eight -goal seasons.”