Men's Soccer Looks to Rebound from 2007

While the Southern New Hampshire University men's soccer team reached the Northeast-10 Tournament for the eighth straight season in 2007, it would be hard to find anyone who considered last season a success for one of the top programs in Division II history.  The Penmen suffered their first sub-.500 season since before many of the players were born, and were quickly eliminated from the NE-10 tourney by eventual national champion Franklin Pierce.

First-year head coach Marc Hubbard, who spent five years as an assistant at the University of New Hampshire prior to his arrival at SNHU last winter, wants to get the Penmen back on track and make sure last season was nothing more than an aberration.  Southern New Hampshire returns 13 players from last season, including a pair of NE-10 All-Conference performers, while also adding 11 newcomers who will look to add immediate depth in several key positions for 2008.

"Our success this year will have to rely on many factors," said Hubbard, whose team was picked sixth in the NE-10 preseason poll.  "One is our depth.  Everyone on this roster will play a strong role on the field and it is vital that guys are ready to come off the bench and do their jobs.  The second is resiliency.  I challenge our team to remain strong and weather the storm when things are not going our way.  The third is sacrifice.  If we want to be as successful as we say we do, then players have to sacrifice their egos and think about the team first," 

"The fourth is trust.  Everyone needs to trust one another: teammate to teammate, coach to player and player to coach. If we can trust everyone to do their jobs and roles, then we can go a long way this year.  The final factor is luck.  Every team needs to have the ball bounce their way at points during the season.  If we can dodge some bullets as well as stay healthy, who knows how far we can go within the conference."

The strength of last season's team was defense.  Last season the Penmen allowed just 18 goals in 17 regular season games and posted six shutouts.  SNHU returns two All-Conference performers in Matt Delaney (Wallasey, England) and Richard Kentish (Kingston, Jamaica).  Delaney, an All-New England pick, is in his third year with the program, also led the team in scoring last season with five goals.  Kentish, a transfer from UConn last summer who was voted team MVP in his first season with the program last year, started all but one game on the backline.

The Penmen also return three other players in the backfield, senior Ransford Shand (Brooklyn, NY) and sophomores Jon Brockway (Lebanon, NH) and Paul D'Angelo (Gloucester, MA).  Shand played in nine games last season while Brockway appeared in 12 contests.  D'Angelo played in 15 games as a freshman and started 13 times.

Despite the success of the defense last season, Hubbard has challenged the backline to be even stronger this season.

"The defense might have been solid but not solid enough (last year).  My expectations are to be stronger defensively than last year.  Last year's team was winless on the road. The good thing about soccer is that you do not have to score to get a result.  If we continue to keep opponents off the scoreboard, then we will not have to rely on players offensively to do more than they are capable of."

SNHU welcomes a pair of newcomers defensively in Jayme Kapinos (Ludlow, MA) and PJ Burnette (Brunswick, ME).  Kapinos, a two-time All-Western Mass. selection at Ludlow HS, helped lead Avon Old Farms to a NEPSAC Class A title as a postgrad and may also play in the midfield.  Burnette led Brunswick HS to a 20-0 record and an Eastern Maine crown as a senior.

In goal, the Penmen no longer have Dan Pelc to rely on.  Pelc was a four-year starter and wrapped up his career tied for second in program history in career shutouts.  Senior Sean Lambert (Rehoboth, MA) is the lone returner between the pipes.  Last season, Lambert posted two shutouts in three starts and registered a 0.30 goals-against average.  He will be challenged by a pair of freshmen, Joey Kapinos (Ludlow, MA), the twin brother of Jayme, and Mark Painchaud (Concord, NH).  Kapinos posted a 0.47 goals-against average with 12 shutouts at Avon Old Farms last season, while Painchaud was an All-State keeper last season at Concord HS.

"The goalies have been working hard to help push one another to get better. Our team defense is good but there will certainly be some times where we will need our goalies to make big saves to help us win or stay in games," said Hubbard.

While defense may have been SNHU's strength last season, offense may have been its bane.  The Penmen mustered just 15 goals all season and were kept off the scoreboard eight times.  Several returners will be looked to for increased offensive output;  graduate student Gabe Mercier (Middleboro, MA), juniors Kevin Woods (Alyth, Scotland) and Paulson Edum (Calabar, Nigeria) and sophomores Danny Hernandez (Salem, NH), Michael Adam (Ludlow, MA) and Mark Cotton (Londonderry, NH).

Mercier had a knack for coming up with clutch goals last season, scoring the game-winners in 1-0 wins over Saint Anselm and AIC.  Woods totaled a goal and three assists last season while Edum started all 18 games last season and had two goals and an assist. Hernandez started all 18 games as a freshman and finished with two goals and an assist while Adam, a midfielder, had two assists in a win over Bentley and started 13 times in his first year.  Cotton played in 15 games and will be looked to primarily as a midfielder.

Brendan Joseph (Bedford, NH) also returns to the program after last suiting up for SNHU in 2005.  In 24 games over his first two seasons, Joseph, a former Manchester West standout, tallied a goal and six assists.

Hubbard hopes immediate help in the goal-scoring department can come from transfers Adrian Schippers (Ashby, MA) and Jonathan Coache (Bow, NH). Schippers spent the past two seasons at Springfield College, where he was the 2006 NEWMAC Rookie of the Year and scored 16 goals in two seasons with the Pride. Coache, who is a graduate student, spent three seasons at Division I Liberty.  He graduated from Bow HS as the third-leading scorer in New Hampshire high school history. 

Also looking to break in either up front or in the midfield are freshmen Ethan Lapierre (Manchester, NH), Rob Lucas (Hooksett, NH) and Shane O'Neill (Gloucester, MA).  Lapierre had nine goals and 20 assists as a senior at Manchester Memorial HS, while Lucas, playing for rival Central, totaled 13 goals and 16 assists as a senior.  Both were All-State selections.  O'Neill had 10 goals and 12 assists as a senior at Gloucester HS and was an All-State selection in Massachusetts.

With so many newcomers, Hubbard expects the Penmen, who kick off with a home game August 28 against C.W. Post, to get stronger as the season wears on, and hopefully, that season will carry deep into November.

"Our young players are not going to get experienced overnight.  The first year is always a learning process.  That doesn't mean first year players cannot be effective, they just have to adapt quicker to college life at SNHU.  Our experienced players are good leaders for our younger guys to model after," Hubbard explained.

"General themes I have emphasized on since my arrival are to work hard, stay disciplined and not cut any corners. This applies to all facets of my job.  If I can instill and reinforce these values into the team, we are talented enough to achieve great things this year."