Last season Colorado Mesa University men’s soccer team had a historic year. For the first time in program history, the team went undefeated in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC), sweeping team honors by winning both the conference’s regular season and tournament championship.
However, that wasn’t the memory players carried with them all summer. That moment happened a couple of days later down in Wichita Falls, Texas.
“For me, what sticks in my mind most is the one that got away,” goalkeeper Briley Guarneri said. “It was heartbreaking, I couldn’t stop thinking about it every time I stepped on the field after that.”
In what Head coach Todd Padgett called the most heartbreaking loss in his career, CMU conceded a late goal to Midwestern State University, eliminating the Mavs from the NCAA Tournament in the opening round.
“I think it’s telling of the squad that they said winning the RMAC is great, but,” Padgett said. “I think that’s obviously the next step we have to take. The program has an expectation now that we move on, that we advance.”
Forget RMAC dominance, CMU is now thinking nationally. And in order to reach their goal, Padgett is altering his tactics to suit his more athletically gifted team.
“One of the largest areas of growth is the group’s overall athleticism,” Padgett said. “Foot speed, ability to move laterally and outright jump. This group as a whole is more athletic than any other team I had at Mesa.”
It’s a style similar to Jurgen Klopp’s “Heavy Metal Football.” More pressure on the ball, meaning the defense will play higher up the field to retrieve the ball closer to the opposing half of the field. The defense, is more athletic than ever before, as showcased by Roberto Diaz’s star performance in last year’s RMAC tournament final.
The offense, though, is where the elephant in the room is. Roy Abergil’s departure means the team lost the all-time leading goalscorer. Padgett is aware he doesn’t have a sole player on the team replicating Abergil’s 23 goal season by himself. But the coach has two players in mind capable of filling the Israeli’s position and give teams a difficult time defensively.
“Malik [Mennana] can flat-out fly up the field,” Padgett said. “Roy, technically, was special. His ability to score was special. But he was a particular forward. He wasn’t the forward that was going to blow past three or four players. Malik athletically is an animal. He’s going to hunt down defenders and make life incredibly difficult for defenders.”
Mennana has shown his quality on the pitch, scoring three goals and assisting on five others in 16 starts last year. The other forward Padgett is excited about, hasn’t even touched the field for the Mavericks.
“We have a forward in the program that redshirted last year,” said Padgett. “His name is Takahiro. Just a freak. His ability to move, his strength is just phenomenal. He and Malik will get the line share of the minutes on top.”
Two forwards have expectations on them to step up and become the attacking threat for the reigning RMAC Champs. Luckily for them, a solid group of returning playmakers will create space for them to get into attacking positions. One being Moshe Perez, who after returning from the Premier Development League with the highest goals per minute ratio in the nation proved he can be as much of a goal threat as he is an assist maestro.
The Mavericks will see how effective the changes in the team will be from the opening kick-off. CMU plays their first six games at home against top competition like Colorado School of Mines, St. Edwards and St. Mary’s in a game to avenge their playoff loss.
“We want to play the best teams that we can,” said Padgett. “We want to stack our schedule early. In regards of who gets into the NCAA tournament so much of that relies on strength of schedule; who you play and who you beat. I think what’s going to be important for the first six games is we get results. Because if you have six home games to start, it probably means you’re on the road a lot come season end. And if you don’t get positive results you fight an uphill battle. Those are going to be the toughest first six games we’ve played since I’ve been here, but that’s what it’s about isn’t it?”
The first game of the six will be on Sept. 1 against Lubbock Christian University. Whether CMU’s squad will be up and running from the start is still up in the air.
“Along with the RMAC Championship we want to advance in the [NCAA] playoffs,” defenseman Slater Elkind said. “We think we’re one of the top teams in the country. Each year we come to the expectations to be in the playoffs and the expectation grows every year to advance. And hopefully, we can make it into those regional games and even further than that.”
