The Changing Faces of Masuk Boys Soccer

There will be many new faces and familiar ones in new places when the Masuk High School boys soccer team takes to the pitch this season.

With just three starters returning from last year's 10-4-3 team, the Panthers have to grow on the field and especially find some offensive finishers this year. The departure of last year's leading scorers, Bret Kuchenbecker (12 goals) and Mike Saia (eight goals), puts a premium on finding players who can hit the back of the net, coach Brian Humpal said.

"We'll have to work on the offense as the year goes on," Humpal said. "The vast majority of the goals were scored by those two guys. There are not too many goals returning this year. It will take a little time, but hopefully not too long for some players to find that confidence that they can score and do it on a regular basis."

The fortunate news for Masuk is their wealth of skill on defense.

Returning senior goalkeeper Mat Pils leads an inexperienced, but talented backfield of juniors Connor Timmons, Dean Narado, Tyler John and James Johnson.

In order to kick start the Masuk attack, senior captain Rob Nilan will move from the defensive position he played last year to midfield along with junior Eric Donlan who also started as a defender last season.

"Rob is going to be a big key for us," Humpal said. "He is one of those guys that will do anything to win; it doesn't matter what you ask him to do.

"I think he can generate some offense, but mainly his energy will be important. Instead of having his energy on the backline, it will now be in the middle where he can be a nuisance to the other team and start our offense."

Nilan and Donlan will have additional help in the midfield from junior Chad Eaton, who scored three goals last year, as they look to set up senior Josh Mondo and junior Jacob Hampel at the top.

The rest of the lineup is still in progress Humpal said, but it figures to feature sophomore Pat Cheever at striker or midfielder and classmate Kevin Catale seeing some time at forward.

Humpal said much of the team's success this season will depend upon how quickly his inexperienced players adjust to the faster and more physical varsity play.

Once acclimated, Humpal believes his team will be very competitive because of its depth of sophomores and juniors.

"I hope this year's team took away how hard you have to work from watching last year's team," he said. "Bret and Mike were among the top 10 players in the league.

I'm not sure if anyone right now is on that level, but we are a little deeper this year, so hopefully they understand that we can't just rely on one or two players like we did last year. We have to do it all together. It will be a more of a team effort."