SEASON PREVIEW
The Lancers will be returning a total of ten players that contributed last year with nine of them starting at some point and time. After losing two seniors in Riley Smith and Nick Hall , this year’s team will be experienced and led by a great group of seniors. This year’s squad will be lead by a group of six seniors, including co-captains Blain Williams and Cesar Juarez. Adding to the returning players will be lone freshman Chris Sullivan and new Head Coach Dan Hendricks. Coach Hendricks feels that the Lancers are ready to seize their potential, “The Lancers will be looking to improve on last year’s season where all the returning players agree that there is too much talent on the team not to compete in the very tough Great Plains Athletic Conference. With our boy’s working hard in the off-season, training even harder during pre-season and a little luck, we think we will be able to do just that. The Lancers are coming into this season with a better since of team unity and team pride.”

The Lancers will be starting Freshman Chris Sullivan at goalkeeper, which was a position that Riley Smith, a two-time Honorable Mention All-GPAC selection, had owned for the past four years. Sullivan knows that those are big shoes to fill, luckily for Sullivan and the team, Smith will be back this year as a student assistant and will be passing on his wisdom as well as very useful techniques to the freshman. Smith says “Chris will be a great asset to the team; he is an extremely hard worker and is a pleasure to coach since he listens so well and is more than willing to do what is asked of him. He has the skills to be a college level goalkeeper this year as a freshman”. Also in the defense will be seniors Blain Williams, J.P. Zilla, junior Angel Duran and sophomore Moises Vasquez. Coach Hendricks feels very confident in his defense leading into the season, “These back four have grown a lot, during pre-season, as a group and are now getting very comfortable working as one. With some great leadership by co-captain Blain Williams this group could be much improved from a year ago.”

The Lancers Midfield will be starting a group made up of mostly junior and seniors with the lone sophomore being a returning starter, which will be very helpful at the critical times of the game. Lead by senior co-captain Cesar Juarez, who is according to head coach Dan Hendricks, “The real playmaker of this team, he makes our attack really go”. Also in the midfield will be fellow senior Javier Murgiua, junior Rogelio “Chili” Duran and sophomore Sam Gabriel.

At forward for the Lancers will be a pair of seniors in, Israel Rosas and Jose “Miguel” Garcia that are both returning starters for Mount Marty. Coach Hendricks thoughts on his forwards, “These two will bring a ton of talent and experience to the Lancers attack. They have been working harder then in years past and have been playing well as of late. The Lancers will have to lean on these two forwards at some points in this season, as forward might be our most talented position, but it has the least amount of depth.”