Coach Rick Kilps looks to lead UWP to its 31st consecutive winning season
8/17/2010 7:35:12 AM
The 2010 men’s soccer season is filled with promise and excitement. The groundwork was set last year when the team greatly improved from an uncharacteristic 8-6-3 season in 2008 to 13-5-2, extending the program’s consecutive winning seasons streak to mind-boggling 30. The team finished in fourth place in the league standings, behind three schools which qualified for the NCAA tournament.
“Last year is where we expect to be and better on an annual basis in terms of a won-loss record,” said UW-Parkside head coach Rick Kilps, now in his 27th season as the Rangers’ head coach. “Last season was successful up until the last two games, so we could have done better.”
The team was cruising along at 10 games over .500 when it lost the final game of the season to Drury, a team which was seventh in the country at the time and wrapped up an undefeated regular season. Then, the Rangers stepped into the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament and fell to Bellarmine. Both matches were at Wood Road Field.
“We didn’t finish the season as we wanted to,” noted Kilps. “You can go 20-2, but, unless you can win the vital games, you don’t feel as if you have fully achieved.” Kilps added that his team needs to learn from the experience and parlay that into a strong finish this time around.
Only three were lost through graduation from last year’s club, two of which were goalkeepers, which leads to an interesting discussion. Sophomore Palani Apuakehau played briefly in three games last season, giving up a goal on three shots in 44 minutes. True freshman Ryan Onwukwe has yet to don a collegiate uniform. Onwukwe is a rangy keeper who has solid club experience as a two-time Minnesota state champ. Apuakehau is strong and physically intimidating. The learning curve for the pair between the pipes needs to be a sharp one.
“Goalkeeping is a huge part of the game,” explained Kilps. “Palani had a reasonable spring. He made some mistakes and made some improvements. We need both guys to jump in right away.”
Though the goalkeeping may be inexperienced, the polar opposite is in play for the defenders. Everyone returns to a squad which pitched seven shutouts last season, headed by Matt Gloshen, who was a second team all-conference pick in 2009. Gloshen, Dave Mercer and Jason Moxley are all fifth-year seniors. Plus, Ben Kreple is back after sitting out with an injury last season. Toss in juniors Adrian Magana and Andrew Krenzien, who each played in every game last season, and take the redshirts of off Lucas Klees and Christian Stoiber, and the Rangers have a deep, skilled defensive line.
“This position should be a strength of ours if they all have improved their game over the summer and can work consistently for 90 minutes,” reasoned Kilps.
Moving up the field is another promising group with everyone returning. The midfielders are topped by attacking midfielder Niklas Boedts, a junior who garnered a first team all-region award last season. The German import led the Rangers in scoring with 26 points including a team-high 10 goals and three game-winners.
Wide-midfielders are represented by a wealth of experience in senior Jon Bebeau and junior Spencer Bursten. Bebeau tallied 20 points in 2009. Junior Tim Thao is back as a holding midfielder. Junior Alex Beal played in 13 games off the bench last season and sophomore Collin Monahan played in all but one game as a freshman, notching a pair of goals in the process. Jon Gorlay is also an ingredient in the midfield recipe.
“There’s going to be good competition and it could be difficult to pick four starters out of this group,” admitted Kilps.
The forwards will need to replace 24 total points tallied by Johnson Thao last season, who, along with last year’s goalkeepers Jamie Lieberman and Greg Fischer, have graduated. In looking to generate points up top, Kilps has moved senior Jose Alfaro from midfield to forward.
Fifth-year senior Cyril Simmons will be looked upon to inflate his numbers of four goals and three assists from a year ago. “Cyril played banged up for 2 years,” pointed out Kilps. “This past spring we saw a different Cyril because, for the first time, he’s healthy.”
Competing for time up front will be sophomores Austin Robb and Kinkade Lo, who scored three and two goals respectively in their rookie campaign.
In summary, the 2010 Rangers are highly experienced in the back and midfield. The squad must supply the scoring void left by Johnson Thao and needs to defend between the pipes with underclassmen in the box.
“If this team can play for 90 minutes, the sky is the limit,” professed Kilps. “There can’t be any blips on the radar screen because that was our downfall last year. We would play well for 85 minutes, but flat-lined for 5 minutes and that was costly.”
Overall, this is a top-heavy group with seven seniors on the roster, something Ranger soccer hasn’t seen for awhile. Six of the seven are fifth-year seniors. “The seniors need to be the lead dogs,” commented Kilps. “They can’t look for someone else and need to be the team trailblazers.
Kilps’ outlook is defined with guarded optimism for 2010.
“It’s a hard-working group who are great to work with,” he said. “The expectation this year is to get it done. The danger is you can’t assume, just because we have a lot of upper classmen, that you are going to automatically have a solid season.”
The team will be on display when it hosts the 2010 season opener Thursday, Aug. 26, versus Calumet College of Saint Joseph's at 4:30 p.m., at Wood Road Field. The Rangers blanked the Crimson Wave in last season's opener, 6-0.