The EMU Men’s Soccer team finished with a record of 1-10-6. Despite the losing record, things look positive for the Royals for next season. It was the first season in the Justin Carey era, replacing the legendary Roger Mast after his retirement. The team finished 0-6-4 in conference play, finishing with six draws, showing that they were competitive and in a lot of close matchups despite the six losses on record. The class coming in next year will be Carey’s second group of recruits for a team that hopes to build off of a few positives next season.
The Royals will be losing six seniors after the season; Ethan McGee, Ahmed Zaatar, Baelin Watson, Dallas Organek, Mason DenBesten and David Smith. The Royals played in nine games in which they lost, or drew by one goal. They had some offensive struggles in multiple games this season. Despite a strong defense and quality goalkeeper play, the offense would sometimes sputter out during the second half. The men’s soccer team will look to build off the positives, but work on the errors next year as the team, while Carey will have more experience under his belt.
The Women’s soccer team finished the season 2-13-3. This was the final season for coach Ted Erikson, who will be stepping down. The Women’s team had defense struggles during the season, but finished the last two games scoring 20 goals, and only allowing one. This could be a confidence builder for a team that will be playing under a new coach next fall.
The team only had one senior, Samm Livermore, and one graduate student, Olivia Dalke, so the next coach for the team will have a practiced group of players to work with, and hopefully a strong recruiting class as well. The Royals will begin searching further for a new coach to lead the program. The team averaged 1.3 goals per game, but allowed 2.5 goals per game.
Both teams will look to grow from their losing records. Losing is never good, but good coaches always find positives to pull from said losses, and apply them to wins down the road. The teams will make their way back to the turf next fall, with a new coach leading the Women’s team for the first time since 2014. Both teams are fairly young, and excitement in both teams seems high for the next season on the pitch.
