Men’s soccer team looks to the future

By Keith Hayes | gargoyle@flagler.edu

The future looks bright for the men’s soccer team who will bring back a young and experienced team for next season.

Four seniors will be graduating from the team which include: goalkeeper Matt Gilman, defenseman Kevin Partel and midfielders Conor Killeen and Arnel Selman.

The Saints will now look to younger talent for next season.

“We had a huge freshman class come in so we had to learn how to bond as a team,” junior Aaron Beers said.

The Saints had a total of 10 freshmen on this year’s team. Beers believed that the team had a lot of strength in depth that many of the new players provided.

“We’re losing four seniors and bringing back a lot of experience next season,” defenseman Johan Bergfeld said.

Looking to the future, the team knows there is always room for improvement.

“The one thing that stands out as an area to improve on is scoring goals,” defenseman Daniel Reid said. “We defended quite well this year as a team, but we probably didn’t take advantage of our scoring chances as much as we should have.”

After posting an almost perfect home record at 7-1-1, the Saints look to carry this type of success into next season.

“We learned that we have the capability to beat the best teams in the country and that we have a realistic chance of reaching the NCAA Final Four next season,” Reid said.

The Flagler Men’s Soccer team finished the year with a 14-5-1 record. This impressive record carried them all the way to the NCAA Division II tournament.

“And for us to go on and fulfill our potential next year, we have to maintain that same team spirit that we developed this season,” Reid said.