Fast start in league play will be vital to Scots’ success

MONMOUTH, Ill. — There is a changing of the guard on the Monmouth College men’s soccer team this fall, and the new order is charged with returning coach Rue Carthew’s Fighting Scots to the Midwest Conference playoffs and, hopefully, the national tournament.

Entering his 14th year at MC, Carthew has posted a 95-94-18 record, and his teams have qualified for the postseason four times, most recently in 2001 when Monmouth won the four-team MWC playoffs and advanced to the first round of the Division III tourney.

Two players who started in that historic first-ever national appearance, Mark Allen and David Gray, finished their MC careers last season, and five other regulars also played their final games for the Scots, including Larry Coronell (15 points last fall), Keith Carroll (13 points) and Fabian Calderon. That trio, along with Allen, all made at least one All-MWC team in their Fighting Scots careers. Also departed is two-year starting goalie Matt Hoag.

The plan for the new-look Scots within the Midwest Conference is to get off to a good start at home. Monmouth opens league play with Knox and Grinnell at beautiful Peacock Park on the weekend of Sept. 18-19, and Carroll, Ripon and Illinois College then visit Oct. 2-9. The Scots will likely need to post no worse than a 4-1 record in those five games, as they conclude the season Oct. 16-24 with road contests at the league’s four playoff representatives last year – Lake Forest, Beloit, Lawrence and St. Norbert. The quartet of teams was ranked 1-4 in the preseason coaches poll. St. Norbert was the coaches’ favorite to win the league, while Monmouth was ranked seventh.

A year ago, SNC posted an 8-1 conference mark and also won the league tourney, topping Lake Forest 1-0 in the final. The Green Knights will return four All-MWC players, as will Lawrence.

The lone player returning who has been honored by the league is second-team All-MWC selection Brian Potter, a junior, while the leading scorer among the veteran Scots is sophomore Sam Beciri (six goals, one assist). Other starters back are juniors Andrew Prewett and Malcolm Wallace, who both have earned starting spots for the third straight year, and versatile juniors Matthew Dabbs and Jake Emerson. Carthew has Dabbs slated for forward, while Emerson can play defense or midfield. Dabbs scored the Scots’ first goal of the season Sunday in a 4-1 loss at Hanover College.

Rad Habayeb, who is returning from a season-ending injury, could start at stopper once he is cleared to play in mid- to late September.

Entering the season, Carthew would have said the strength of his team was his midfield, but he’s made an adjustment and currently has players like Emerson, Wallace and Potter in the defense along with Williams.

Not coincidentally, all four defenders are juniors, and Carthew is counting on that class to become the new leadership for the team. There are only three seniors on the roster and only one of them has played at Monmouth all four years.

A handful of Carthew’s seven soccer recruits may wind up landing starting berths, but one spot that figures to be taken by a returner is goalkeeper. Getting the call there will be Brad “Sunshine” Hofmann, whose nickname comes from the blonde-haired California quarterback in the movie “Remember the Titans.” The celluloid “Sunshine” was asked to step into a prominent role and deliver, and Carthew feels Hofmann is ready to become Monmouth’s last line of defense after a one-year apprenticeship under Hoag.

Prewett, a field player, is Hofmann’s backup, so Carthew hopes his sophomore ’keeper will stay healthy. Despite yielding 10 goals through Monmouth’s first two games – the Scots dropped their Saturday opener 6-0 at Asbury – Hofmann came up with some tremendous saves and will play a vital role in the team’s success.

Other reserves from last year who have snared starting spots are Williams and midfielder Tom St. George of Galesburg.

Tops among the newcomers, Carthew feels, are international student Evelin Musanovic of Sweden, who has started both of the Fighting Scots’ games at forward, midfielder A.J. Danielson, transfer Tyler Bechtold and Paul Kallal.

In between solid 7-1 and 4-0 victories over Asbury and Knox to start and end the 2003 season, Monmouth was just 4-7-2 and was outscored 36-20. The Scots settled for a 4-5 record in the MWC, finishing tied for sixth. The line between reaching the postseason and finishing in the lower half of the 10-team standings is a fine one, and Carthew hopes that an intangible here and a fortunate bounce there will get Monmouth back on the winning side in league play.