Pirates Soccer Team Retools for Success

Rodney Orrick knows things have been tough for the soccer program.

But he also believes that this could be the year the trend turns around.

“Last year was a rough season for us, but we did win our first district game in more than a decade,” the St Charles soccer coach said. “We didn’t make a lot of strides, but that was one of them.”

The Pirates return 14 players from last year’s five-win team.

“Based on what I’ve seen from our returners and a strong freshman class, I believe our expectations are much higher than they have been,” Orrick said.

Offense:

Goals were hard to come by for the Pirates last year with only 14 in 27 matches. The school's two leading scorers graduated. Phil Rohan and Ross Randazzo accounted for nine goals total and were the only two players who scored more than once. Of the returning offensive players, only senior Jose Maravilla recorded more than one assist. He scored once with two assists.

“I’m confident we’ll have a lot more firepower this year,” Orrick said. “I do foresee us scoring more this year. We’ll score significantly more with the depth that we have.”

Noah Dankocsik scored a goal last year and is also back. Maravilla will be “asked to cash in quite a bit more than he did last year.” Senior David Rowland, juniors Andrew Deppe, John Gallion, Andrew Farmer, Cody Steffen and Josh Flaugher will also contribute along with freshman Bryson Cannon.

Flaugher has been impressive early and could start at outside backer. Cannon “has had a really good preseason,” Orrick said.

Defense:

Of the four different goalies used last year, Luke Joslin logged the most minutes and had 10 starts. The only goalie to graduate was Matt Mitchell, who was 3-6 last season. Drew Haber was used sparingly, but Oz Lopez saw significant time and recorded one of the team’s two rare shutouts.

“We’re pretty solid in that position,” Orrick said of his netminders. “I trust them to do a good job. We’re deep at goalie, and that’s not going to be an issue for us at all.”

The Pirates allowed 130 goals last season, nearly five per match. Orrick knows that needs to be an area of improvement. He said possessing the ball, at both ends of the field, will be key, and the goal is to be stouter defensively. With “more attacking players than we’ve had in the past,” Orrick believes team defense will improve.

Senior Jack Gallagher will anchor the backfield with juniors Eric Bower, Josh Walker and Haber. Freshmen Casey Teson, Andrew Weiss and Tyler Renaud, along with senior Harry Reighard, will also see time on the back line. Renaud could also play sweeper or attacking midfielder.

“It’s really one of the areas where we have real competition,” Orrick said of the backfield. “The dilemma is who do I pick for which day, but that’s a good problem."

“Any coach will tell you defense will win championships,” Orrick said. “Defense will get you victories. When we didn’t have the ball, our inability to stop people was obvious. They made us pay every time we made mistakes”

Coach:

Orrick has had one winning season, 14-10 in 2007, in his six years as the boys coach. Following last year’s 5-22 record, his overall mark is 41-101-2 and 12-26 in the Gateway Athletic Conference.

Schedule:

 against Fulton in the St. Charles West-Fort Zumwalt East Tournament, which will run through Sept. 1. The first regular-season game will be at Francis Howell Central on Sept. 7.

“I think we have a good combination of players,” Orrick said. “We’re definitely excited about the start of the season.”