BY MATTHEW PEASLEE
MORGANTOWN — The Morgantown boys’ soccer team is preparing a grand banquet for the 2021 season. Fourteen seniors lead the way in what head coach Sam Snyder hopes is a year to remember for generations to come.
“They’re the hosts, they’re setting the table,” Snyder said. “The rest of the team are the guests. The seniors are going to be in charge of everything. I’m helping them become adults and strong leaders in a new generation — kind of, coaching them to be coaches.
“Not only are they out there for their own personal goals, they know they need to leave the program in good shape for the younger kids.”
Snyder said there should be nine seniors in the starting rotation though there are still several position battles that will develop over the month of August.
Leading the way for the Mohigans will be goalkeeper Carter Cave, who has been a starter since he was a sophomore. Midfielder Vivek Sirian, defensive center-back Domonic Gabrielle and forward Caden Carpenter look to be the top skill players for the team.
“We’re returning most of our core,” Snyder said. “We have seniors who have waited their turn and now they’re stepping into new roles.”
A new role for MHS as a team will be adding a fresh defensive layer. Snyder said the Mohigans will be “unbearable and relentless” to the opposition.
“We’ve been great offensively for the past few years, so it’s not an issue of scoring goals but we want to be the team that owns the field,” Snyder said. “We want to set the tone from the beginning with our defense. Team defense is our main focus.
“We want our defense to become our offense. Soccer is a game of transitions so we want to set up our whole game plan where we’re dictating it and we’re going to score goals in a set amount of time.”
There’s still a sour taste in the mouths of the Mohigans after falling early in the playoffs last year against University. The team managed to go on a 10-game winning streak in the middle of the season but faltered down the stretch. MHS scored 59 goals a year ago and pitched eight shutouts.
“We honestly thought last year was going to be a really good year for us but with the shortened season and dealing with county regulations we fell short of where we knew we could be,” Snyder said. “We probably played more games than we should have in a shortened amount of time. We were just trying to make up for a lost season but it kind of wore us down. It cost us our legs down the stretch.”
Eleven years ago, Snyder started as an assistant coach for MHS. He has been the boys soccer head coach since 2015. Other seniors on the roster include Lucas Howell, Connor Brumbaugh, Yazan Hanif, Bernardo Pereira, Ali Mohammad, Daniel Campa, Jonah Forinash, Elliot Chang, Sam Sizick and Benjamin Meyer.
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