Kingsmen Soccer Kicks off 2017 Season

Posted: Aug 30, 2017

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – The Cal Lutheran men's soccer team is looking to take the next step in 2017 as the Kingsmen want to compete for a spot in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) postseason tournament.

The Kingsmen bring back key pieces from their starting core on offense and defense. The team also welcomes nine new faces that will compete for the Violet and Gold.

"The most fun part of my work is being with the student-athletes," said head soccer coach Dan Kuntz. "The exciting part for me, is to see the creativity and imagination for this group of players.

"It's just fun to see them painting new pictures on the field. We've got some very good returners coming back, some nice incoming guys, and they all connect well. I want to see how their show comes together."

Brandon Kearney is back for his senior season and leads the offense into action. Kearney, from Concord, Calif., is a forward that comes into the season having scored 18 career goals. He was named First Team All-SCIAC as a sophomore and Second Team All-SCIAC as a junior.

Also providing offense for CLU is senior midfielder Diego Ortega. In 2016, he tallied the third-most goals on the team with four and added three assists. More offensive pieces to watch for are Jaime Alvarado, Gabe Naudin, Chris Ortiz and Charlie Villa-Lovos.

The defense is anchored by 2016 All-West Region selection Cristian Yepez. The junior started all 18 games for the Kingsmen this past season. He helped CLU record six shutouts and only allowed opponents to a 1.29 goals against average.

Yepez has a strong defensive cast joining him as senior Daniel Aguilar started 10 games and played in 16 of the 18 games in 2016. The duo, sophomore Joshua Drapkin and new incoming players look to keep opposing offenses under wraps.

Protecting the goal for the Kingsmen will be seniors Sergio Esquivel and Eduardo Garcia. The duo split time in goal this past season and will be pushing each other to be at their best again this year.

CLU also returns a lot of leadership and experience in junior David Allgeier, sophomore Alon Arnaldes, sophomore Joey Arnold, junior Nick Bedford, senior Cody Collins, junior Alex Cortez, junior Gubidxa Gutierrez-Seymour, senior Cristian Guzman, sophomore Luis Perez, junior Jared Pischke, senior Nico Sabbattella, junior Max Sharpe, junior Timothy Stuhr and senior Peter Wilder.

In addition to the returners, CLU has nine new players that will compete for the Violet and Gold. Players that transferred to CLU include junior forward/midfielder Luis Cabrera (Oxnard College), junior defenseman Ulises Castro (South Mountain Community College), junior defenseman Rosalio Martinez (Ventura College), junior midfielder/defenseman Danny Pacheco (Oxnard College) and junior midfielder Stevie Ray Trujillo (Oxnard College).

Incoming freshmen looking to make an impact this season are Kyler Kim (Boring, Ore.), Bryce Raygor (Austin, Texas), Connor Newfeld-Griffin (Portland, Ore.) and Jake Rast (San Jose, Calif.).

The Kingsmen play eight games at home and nine games on the road, including 14 conference matchups.

"There's at least five teams and maybe more that are going to be fighting for the four postseason spots," said Kuntz. "Because of that, I think all these games will be exciting. So I encourage folks to come out and watch because it's going to be a lot of fun."

Cal Lutheran will start the 2017 season in Lancaster, Pa., Friday against Franklin & Marshall.