by Joe Azar
At the beginning of the season there was no question who the RMAC Conference would choose as their favorite for conference player of the year. After scoring 14 goals in 21 games in 2015, Roy Abergil established himself as the premier striker in the RMAC. A year later, the Israeli is not only living up to the hype as the conference’s superstar, but he’s exceeding the expectations placed on him. Before the beginning of October, Abergil has 10 goals including three this past weekend in CMU’s two victories.
CMU started the weekend on the road taking on Westminster in Salt Lake City. It started out as a familiar and frustrating narrative for the Mavs after Westminster took the lead 10 seconds after the second half began. Then as the story usually unfolds, Abergil’s goals helped the Mavs complete a comeback. Five minutes after falling behind, Kevin Del Mazo delivered a cross which Abergil headed to the back of the net to tie the game. Six minutes later he slotted home a penalty to give them the lead. After the Griffins tied the game at two, CMU needed someone to step up and break through. That someone was Sr. Wil Mercier, whose first goal of the season gave the Mavs a 3-2 win.
On Sunday CMU returned to Walker Field to face South Dakota Mines. Rather than starting slow, their star man made sure they began the match with their foot in front, and it was thanks to a tactical mistake made by their opponents.
“We practice playing from wide spaces and putting balls into the box,” said Abergil. “That’s how we got our first two goals. They also played three in the back, and that helped us put the ball out wide.”
“When anybody is going to play three defenders against us it’s going to play into our hands,” said Head Coach Todd Padgett. “We’re a team that’s successful on the flanks.”
Playing three defenseman in the back proved costly in for the Hilltoppers. As crosses by Nick Pena and Del Mazo were met with the foot and head of Abergil who gave them an early 2-0 lead.
“That felt good, mainly because we’ve had our problems with slow starts and played a lot of the season from behind,” said Padgett.
Malik Mennana and Slater Elkind added two more goals for the Mavs to have a 4-0 lead before conceding two penalties late in the game.
“It was the same basic thing that beat us both times,” said Padgett. “That was just us not getting things right from the start on the defensive side. I can’t say it was necessarily a loss of concentration other than just not getting it right and fixing the problem after the first time.”
Though frustrating, the penalties became simply footnotes in a 4-2 Mavs win. Abergil was the catalyst in both games, but Padgett did note that it is what is happening before the ball finds him that is allowing him to have such a fantastic start to the year.
“I think the people the play around him and the balls we are serving him are making his job easier,” said Padgett.
Whether it’s better service or just him putting everything together after three years, Abergil is close to totaling his goal total from last year as October is about to begin. And if CMU can replicate their previous result this season against Fort Lewis Friday, Abergil and the team might hit their peak right as RMAC season goes into full swing.
