UMBC Men's Soccer Team Looks to Repeat as America East Champions

After back-to-back tremendous seasons and making it to the second round of the NCAA tournament last year the expectations for a successful men’s soccer team are there again for the squad to win a championship. This squad may actually go deeper despite losing an All-American and several other key graduates.

“If you have success the bar is going to raise a little bit but from my standpoint as the head coach of the program the goals have stayed the same,” said Coach Pete Caringi Jr., who is entering his 21^st season at the helm of the Retriever team. 

“Obviously the goal week one is to win a championship; we’ve never gone into any year where the goal isn’t to win a championship.”

But before the team can win a championship and meet their full potential there are a few obstacles they have to get past, most notably injuries.  The men’s soccer team at UMBC has been hit by a major injury bug this preseason and several players expected to make key contributions have been unable to play.

The center midfielder spot that was left open with the graduations of Chris Williams and John Paul Waraksa was expected to be filled by National Youth Team player Zach Wenger, a highly touted freshman from Calvert Hall, juniors Dave Vaeth and Milo Kapor, and redshirt senior Sean Rothe. 

Unfortunately only Vaeth has been able to see any sort of significant time in the team’s preseason games.  Wenger and Kapor has both battled through some injuries while Rothe, who missed all of last season with an injury, has been said to be struggling after re-injuring himself during his summer rehab.

That doesn’t mean this is going to be a lost season for the Retrievers, though.  The midfield position may be going through some adversity right now but the back-line is still intact with the same unit from last year and there are a bevy of quality scorers left on the roster.

It is going to be impossible to replace Levi Houapeu, who lead the nation in point over the last two seasons and earned All-American honors as a senior before becoming the first Retriever to make it to the MLS, but coming into this season senior Andrew Bulls, a preseason All-American by College Soccer News and Soccer America, should continue his incredibly high level of play.

The question is though, where will Bulls play? Two years ago Bulls finished second in the nation in goals, assists, and points, only behind Houapeu, while playing as the team’s striker.  Last year Bulls moved back into the midfield at right wing and thrived, becoming one of the nation’s best set-up men.

“Bulls is the X-factor as far as were he’s playing,” Caringi Jr. said. “He’ll probably play in both places.”

But thanks to all of the injuries the team has faced he may start the season as a midfielder because otherwise Caringi Jr. is only left with some very young and inexperienced players to fill in before everybody else gets healthy.

“You have an established player in the midfield; he’s an All-American at that position,” Caringi Jr. said. “Then again, he’s a proven scorer so that’s the dilemma that we’re having going into the season: where does he play?”

That is a good problem to have and it is also good that if he has to stick back at midfield there are plenty of other guys who can play up top and become prolific scorers.

The coach’s son, Pete Caringi III, proved to be one of the best freshmen in the America East last season, becoming a unanimous All-Rookie team selection after scoring six goals with five assists and starting 14 of the team’s 20 games.  His 17 points tied for fourth in the conference and this season he may be up for even bigger and better things.

Over the summer Caringi III was one of five Retrievers, along with Travis Dennis, Milovan Kapor, Phil Saunders, and Dave Vaeth, to win a national championship with the Baltimore Bays U-19 club team, where he lead the team with six goals and was named to the “Best 11” squad.

“I think he’s progressing well,” Caringi Jr. said. “He had a great spring doing what he’s supposed to do, scoring goals, and this summer he had a great summer winning a national championship…From a coach’s standpoint to watch him continue to develop is a nice thing to see because he more than holds his own out there and he’s proven he can score big goals.”

Kapor and Kadam are also two returning players with the ability to become even bigger contributors on offense this season.  While Kapor has battled through injuries in the preseason and only had a modest three goals to his name in a Retriever uniform he has shown incredible offensive ability in two years and dazzled everybody with his lone goal last season against Penn State, a bender from 26 yards out in the 99^th minute.

Kadam burst onto the scene last year with two goals and two assists in the team’s opening weekend but as the season wore on he faded back into more of a midfielder’s role of setting plays up instead of scoring.  But he is a proven offensive threat.  Before transferring to UMBC Kadam led UNC-Greensboro in goals his last year there and has 10 goals with eight assists to his name at the collegiate level.

But the big offensive addition to the squad is Kadeem Dacres, a 2010 NSCAA Junior College First-Team All-American from Mercer County Community College in New Jersey, historically one of the best junior colleges in the country.

While at Mercer County CC Dacres scored 14 goals with six assists, scoring seven goals in each of his two seasons, and was named the Region 19 Player of the Year last fall.  He has competed for the U-15, U-17, and U-18 United State national teams.

“I think you’re going to find a very exciting player; a kid that can score goals,” Caringi Jr. said. “It’s not a big adjustment from top-notch junior college to Division I…The kid can play.  If he can play at Mercer then he can play in Division I.”

But unlike the past two seasons where UMBC has been one of the highest scoring teams in the nation, even with so many weapons, this year’s team may have to rely more on their defense, which is fully intact from last season where they allowed only 1.25 goals per game, recorded six shutouts, and only seven goals in conference play before shutting out New Hampshire in the Championship game and William & Mary in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Liam Paddock and Daniel Welsh have established themselves as two of the best center backs in not only the conference but the entire country.  Paddock was an All-Rookie team selection in 2009 and made a very strong case to be an All-Conference player again with his strong back line play and even netted two goals.  He has started all 38 games he’s played in his first two seasons with the team.

“He trains and works hard and is very professional in everything he does,” Caringi Jr. said. “Liam is one of the bright spots on this team.”

An injury forced Welsh to start out on the bench last season but as he healed he became a bigger part of the team’s defense and eventually started 15 games.  He was named to the America East All-Rookie team after he joined Paddock to form a very good, young duo to lead the defensive unit.  Like Paddock, he too found the back of the net twice last season.

“He’s evolving into one of the best backs in the country,” Caringi Jr. said.  “He’s very quick, he’s very fit.  He’s more used to the American college system now.  Last year at this time everything was new to him.  He’s definitely extremely quick and one of the best backs in the country and I think that will show this season.”

Out at left back the team finally settled on Andy Streilein after a bunch of mixes last season.  Streilein was uses as an offensive weapon in 2009 after transferring in as Delaware’s top scorer the season prior but injuries forced Caringi Jr. to try him out on the back line and he thrived.

“I wasn’t surprised; I think he’s a very good player,” Caringi Jr. said. “When Andy wants to play he’s as good as any player around.  He’s very versatile and at time when he transferred in he was inconsistent but last year on our championship run he was a very consistent game-in and game-out ad he’s one of the reasons that we won a championship.”

If, however, Caringi decides to move Streilein back up into an offensive role sophomore Travis Dennis, who started six games at the position last year after transferring from Clemson, could be in the mix for the job, as will senior Jason McCarron, who started 11 games there at 2009 before injuries hampered his production since.  He, however, is still battling injuries in the preseason.

But the glue to the entire back line is senior Vince Savarese, who has started 47-straight games at right back, including all 20 each of the past two seasons.

“Vince is very consistent, you know what you’re going to get,” Caringi Jr. said. “Especially in his final year we’re expecting a lot our of him, including from a leadership standpoint.”

Savarese is a classic old-school bulldog type defender that isn’t afraid to throw his body out there to force the offensive player where he wants but also never hesitates to bring the ball up the wing to initiate an offensive attack.

Backing up that line Caringi Jr. will once again have an interesting goalkeeper battle between Dan Louisignau, Phil Saunders, and Miguel Calderon.  Saunders was named to the All-Rookie team in 2009 after starting all 20 games and allowing only 24 goals and making 58 saves with six shutouts but Louisignau emerged last year and started the team’s final 13 games and allowed only 0.87 goals per game while recording 71 saves and five shutouts on his way to being tabbed as a Second-Team All-Conference Player and leading the team to shutouts in the championship game, where he came up with a  key stop in a penalty shootout that led the Retrievers to their championship.

“I think it’s the best trio of goalkeepers maybe in the country, that’s how strongly I feel about those three,” Caringi Jr. said.  “They’ve all had success at the club level and they’ve all had success here.  Obviously it’s Dan’s position because he’s coming off the second round of the NCAA [tournament] and started in goal for us…we’re just playing it day by day and hopefully come opening game Dan will be the started and we’ll see how he plays.  I’m very comfortable with any one of those three so it will be interesting how it evolves.”

Caringi Jr.’s one concern this year is that because of all of the injuries his squad won’t be ready for a very tough schedule he laid out of them in September, highlighted by No. 7 Maryland, who the team will host on September 13 at Retriever Soccer Park.

“I’m not sure where we’ll be in September but I think we’ll be a much better team come October when everyone is back and healthy and game fit,” he said. “We could be a much better team down the road.”