It’s a whole new season

Two seasons ago, the men’s soccer team reached the highest ranking in Pitt history at No. 7 in… Two seasons ago, the men’s soccer team reached the highest ranking in Pitt history at No. 7 in the country. Then in 2001, the team underachieved all season and finished with a 5-8-3 record.

This season, the Panthers have four goals according to head coach Joe Luxbacher.

“Number one, we want to make the Big East Tournament,” Luxbacher said. “We also want to make the NCAA Tournament, be ranked in the top five in our Mid-Atlantic Region, and be nationally ranked as well.”

Not much has changed since two years ago when Pitt was nationally ranked. Team captains, defenseman Clay Haflich and goalkeeper Justin Gaul, are back and ready to lead the team back into the national rankings.

Luxbacher doesn’t believe much changed last season when the team fell below the .500 mark. He attributed the losing season to a lack of good bounces.

“Two years ago we ended up winning games that could’ve gone either way,” Luxbacher said. “Last year in similar games, we didn’t get that big goal. We have lofty goals this year. We just need to make those big plays.”

In the off-season, Pitt gained three recruits.

Keeyan Young comes to Pitt from Haverford School in North Wales, Pa. He is a striker, and Luxbacher expects him to contribute right away.

Thomas Decato hails from LaGrangeville, N.Y. He plays the flanker position, but won’t start this season. However, Luxbacher believes he is a key to Pitt’s future.

Jason Cooke comes from Leonardtown, Md., and plays in goal, but because Pitt has Gaul and Justin Lowery already in goal, Luxbacher will redshirt Cooke.

In two preseason games this fall, the Panthers lost both games, to Akron, 3-0, and Duquesne, 1-0, respectively.

Although no goals were scored during preseason games, Luxbacher is confident that his team is on the right track for the season.

“We expected a few players to show more then they have,” Luxbacher said. “But if we weren’t playing well I’d be concerned [about not scoring a goal], but we played well.”

Pitt is a little thin on offense this season, which will most likely force Luxbacher to move one of his star midfielders, Bryan Hopper, to the striker position up front.

Even with the thin bench, the season has a bright outlook in Luxbacher’s mind.

“We’ll be a good team this season,” Luxbacher said. “Collectively, we will be in every game. We just need to have some guys step up.”

The team will start their 2002 campaign this weekend with two games.

Saturday, Pitt will play at Oneonta and then head to Bowling Green on Sunday. These games will be the beginning of one of the toughest schedules any team in any sport can play.

The Panthers will play eight teams that were nationally ranked last year, four of which are ranked in the top seven to begin the season (No. 3 St. John’s, No. 4 Connecticut, No. 5 Virginia and No. 7 Rutgers).

“It’s unheard of to play four of the top seven schools,” Luxbacher said. “We have two great tests this weekend.”