With a solid cast of 12 returnees coupled with 15 newcomers, the Murray State men's soccer team has aspirations of another strong 2022 campaign and building onto last year's eight victories.
Even with plenty of youth, head coach John Connor likes the way his squad has already begun to gel together heading into Saturday's 2 p.m. home opener with Garden City Community College from Kansas.
"The kids are focused and putting in hard work," Connor stated. "Now we'll see how it plays out in actual games. All of them have played well. Everybody got to play in the scrimmage last week. We have good chemistry and are already playing well as a group.
"The thing about our team is that we don't rely on any single player. We have experienced guys to help but that doesn't mean they will be starting every game. We have 27 good athletes that can all compete. That's good for competition. You should always want somebody there to push you harder in practice. I believe in a large squad, and everyone has a chance to show what they can do. We are going to continue to attack as much as possible and every game is different but it's good to have quality depth."
The Aggies definitely had their promise on display in last weekend's preseason outing against Ranger College, notching a 5-1 victory over the Texas club despite only being on campus for a couple days prior for practices.
Returning Texas duo Cesar Solis from Kerens and Antonio Cantoran from Lewisville each posted two goals with England freshman Dominic Woolley adding the other.
It was a solid performance according to Connor, but still showed a plenty that could get better.
"We could have scored more and had several chances, but overall I was pretty pleased for the first time out," the coach said. "We have a lot to improve on if we want to keep it going."
After a pair of non-conference outings against non-conference opponents from Garden City and Hill College over the next week, things get serious for the Aggies on Sunday, August 28 with the Region 2 opener against Northern Oklahoma-Tonkawa, a team that gave them one of their two losses a year ago.
"Every team can beat us so we have to respect all our opponents," Connor added. "Every day we have to wake up and grind and hopefully the outcome is what we want.
"This is always a difficult conference, and we have a lot of respect for the other teams. We just have to continue to work hard."
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