Men's Soccer Position Preview

COLUMBIA, S.C. —- With the 2019 season set to open Friday at in-state rival Clemson, head coach Mark Berson released the team’s position-by-position preview heading into the new year, it was announced Thursday. 
 
The regular season opens Aug. 30 at Clemson while the home opener is set for Sept. 3 against Gardner-Webb. 
 
Once again, fans can get the best deal in town for season tickets. Tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for youth and get you into ALL 20 soccer matches at Stone Stadium this fall. To purchase, visit gamecocksonline.com/soccertix.
 
Forwards
Returners (2) – Tucker Monheimer and Andrew Halloran 
Newcomers (3) – Brian Banahan, Logan Frost and CJ Mitchell-Smith 
 
Coach’s thoughts: “The newcomers to this group bring some different abilities to this team. They’re in the process of gaining experience and we want to up our goal production from last year.” 
 
Defenders
Returners (6) – Paul Quildies, Frano Buhovac, Elijah Bebout, Josh Corning, Mitchell Myers and Aleksander Bjerke Christensson
Newcomers (4) – Mark Roby, Dylan Bartel, Ethan Rose and Donovan Wu 
 
Coach’s thoughts: “Right now Mitchell Myers and Paul Quildies are out for the early part of the season with injury and Frano Buhovac is coming back from injury and will be limited in the early part of the season. Some newcomers that have really shown well are Mark Roby, Dylan Bartel and Donovan Wu. All three of them could be in starting position in the early part of the season. We’ll be a little inexperienced in the back both due to injury but also due to the fact that these guys have shown well in preseason. We want to continue to squeeze down our goals against average, which was good last year. So, if we can keep our goals against average down and up our production then that’s our main goal coming into the season.”
 
Midfielders
Returners (6) – Seth Wiebusch, Luca Mayr, Jared Gulden, Kyle Gurrieri, Drew Johnson, Brad Kurtz
Newcomers (3) – Parker League, Zach Kirkwood, and Logan Hitzeman 
 
Coach’s thoughts: “We have experience returning in the midfield, but Luca Mayr and Kyle Gurrieri have both been plagued with injury and will be very limited in the early part of the season. We have a number of newcomers in that group that I think will be able to contribute but it will be a learning experience as we go along. 
Goals: 
 
Goal keepers
Newcomers (2) – Buenyamin Yusufoglu and Nick Brady 
Returners (2) – Justin Bauer and Ryan Bilichuk 
 
Coach’s thoughts: “Right now, whoever is in goal for us will be as newcomer as Justin Bauer is out with injury. But again, they’ve been pretty good in preseason, so we feel they’re going to do a good job back there. Our goal is to maintain a low goal against average during the season and make sure we’re productive in starting the attacks out of the back.” 
 
Team
Coach’s thoughts:  “At this point coming out of preseason, we are all very pleased with the fitness level and the work ethic that our guys put in during the summer. We have a very young team with 50 percent of our roster comprised of new players. This will mean that it will take a while for us to settle into our lineup and our strengths and weakness. 
 
“Things we know are that the abilities of the young players are going to help our team but there’s no substitute for experience and that’s just something we’re going to have to pick up along the way. 
 
“As a team I think we’re very young and inexperienced. In one of our scrimmages we only had two players on the field who had ever played for South Carolina at any point. So, it’s just going to be a situation where we’re going to have to grow and see how this team progresses throughout the year. 
 
“Our goals are to win the conference. Win our games in-state and to go the NCAA Tournament.” 
 
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