THOUSAND OAKS, Calif.— The 2019 Cal Lutheran men's soccer team is looking to build on 2018, when they only graduated two seniors, and look to compete for a SCIAC Championship and a NCAA Tournament Berth this year.
Men's Soccer Head Coach, Miguel Ruiz, is entering his second season with a team that has experience, depth, leadership and youth. The team has 23 returners that are joined by nine freshmen.
"We are very excited to be back on the field with our returners and our new incoming freshmen," said Ruiz. "Training camp was great and we have learned a ton as we are still somewhat young."
The senior class looks to lead the Kingsmen back to the SCIAC Tournament. The group consists of Joey Arnold, Joshua Drapkin, Daniel Pacheco, Luis Perez and Aaron Winsick. Arnold, Drapkin, Pacheco and Perez were all part of the 2017 SCIAC Tournament Championship team. The quintet looks to make it two SCIAC Championships in three years.
The junior class is the smallest and is made up of Jake Rast and Lucca Rodrigues. Rast was a member of the 2017 SCAIC Championship squad while Rodrigues was second on the team with two goals in 2018.
Coach Ruiz's first recruiting class is the sophomores. They are continuing to grow in his system and will compete for playing time in 2019. Nick Bryant, Owen Ebner, Ryan Fraye, Garrett Gaines, Adrian Graciano, Justin Irungaray, Cameron Korshavn, Dustin Lettera, Igor Lumbrano, Justin Magana, Erick Mejia, Andres Rubalcava, Aidan Sauer, McKay Severance, Brandon Smith and Juan Valencia make up the biggest class. After much experience in 2018, this group will look for expanded roles this year.
The newest Kingsmen to represent the Violet and Gold are Cody Breskin, Brandon Chavez, Chris Ines, Matt Myers, Kai Nemoto, Chris Pelaez, Kobi Saito, Cesar Sagastume and Tyler Sherard. They will all get their first taste of NCAA action this weekend.
Cal Lutheran gets the season underway Friday. The Kingsmen are at Pacific Lutheran with kickoff set for 7 p.m.
2019 Roster: Kingsmen Soccer
CLU Instagram: CLUSports
Sport IG: kingsmen_soccer
CLU Twitter: CLUSports
Sport Twitter: CLUmSoccer
CLU Facebook: CLUSports
Hashtags: #clusports #ownthethrone #goregals #gokingsmen #theSCIAC #ncaad3
Release by Ryan Jorgenson, Sports Information Director
