Warriors ready to lean on returning starters
Elizabeth Forward boys return 10 of 11 starters from last season’s playoff team.
LIAM BELAN lbelan@yourmvi.com
It’s not often that a playoff squad can return 10 of its 11 starters, but that is exactly what the Elizabeth Forward boys soccer team will do this season as it hopes to push further into the postseason with an assortment of experienced players.
Last year’s leading goal-scorer Will Sinay graduated, which will leave a big void to be filled, but coach Doug Finke is confident that he has the players to make up for the loss.
Seniors like Carson Ruffing, Dom Cavalier and Ethan Childers will be among the attacking threats for a strong Warriors squad.
“I feel that our current squad is very strong,” Finke said. “We return 10 starters from a playoff team, so I’m very comfortable with the squad that we have. A lot of these guys have picked it up in the offseason to try and solidify their roles and some guys have picked up new responsibilities.”
That trio will join fellow seniors Ronald Chambers, Jakub McKelvey and goalkeeper Matt Johnston as players in their final high school season. Finke said that the group has shown impressive leadership in conducting the team’s three-a-week offseason practice sessions.
Having 10 starters back will undoubtedly provide Elizabeth Forward with some stability this fall.
“I think it’s a very big advantage,” Finke said. “We are losing our leading goalscorer, so we have to rely on the six seniors that we have and all the experience that they have from playing three years for us. We’re going to rely on them to lead us this year and set the example for how things should be in this program.
“We don’t have a true goalscorer, so we’ll have to look for more of a committee. We’ve been talking about that over the offseason in terms of how to spread the goals. Someone different might have to step up on a given night.”
There’s also a large freshmen class of 16 players looking to make an impact in the program now, and in the future. Finke said that Levi George is showing the most promise of earning some varsity time out of the rookies for the Warriors. Two sophomores, Luca Valerio and Aidan Davis, are players that will be important for Elizabeth Forward as well.
EF will need all the impact players that they can get in another tough section. The WPIAL realignment kept the squad in Section 3-2A with fellow holdovers like WPIAL champion South Park and playoff team East Allegheny. Two more playoff teams in McGuffey and former Class 1A standout Seton LaSalle will enter the conference along with South Allegheny, Steel Valley and Ligonier Valley.
Additionally, the Warriors will play Thomas Jefferson, Ringgold, Baldwin and Class 1A WPIAL champion Bentworth in non-section play.
“We know that the team to beat every year is South Park,” Finke said. “They don’t rebuild, they reload. They’re always the ones to beat, and we can kind of use them as a measuring stick. Seton LaSalle being added to the section this year will be a new wrinkle. We used to play them in non section, and we haven’t now for a few years, but we know they’re a very strong program.
“Even though they’re coming up from Class 1A, they’re always making deep playoff runs, so they’re gonna be a tough team to add. McGuffey was a playoff team last year, they’re new to our section and I expect them to be a challenge. East Allegheny has been tough the last few years. So, it’s going to be a tough section, but that’s not any different than it has been the last few years.”
The Warriors started their two-a-days on Monday in their quest to make a deeper run in the postseason, and they will have their first scrimmage Saturday against Trinity. They will look to continue the progress that they saw from an offseason team camp in order to make a push towards the elite programs in Class 2A. “I thought we really showed some good signs of how this season could go,” Finke said of the camp. “But we also found out the things that we have to work on to have the season that we want.
“We need to play together and rely on everybody. That’s something that we’ve been preaching is that, if we have 11 players all on the same page, we’ll be good. One guy being off can pull that out of balance. So we need to make sure that everyone is aligned and doing their jobs rather than trying to do too much. If we can do that, we should be good.”