Men's soccer opens season Saturday

The Wayland Baptist men's soccer team launches into the 2017 season with every intention of defending their first-ever Sooner Athletic Conference championship and fully expecting to qualify again for the NAIA National Championships.
 
"Our goal is always to win the conference and go to nationals, and there's nothing different this year," WBU coach Cristhian Ospina said. "We have a great group of guys, really good kids. We started the preseason really slow but have been getting better every day."
 
The Pioneers, ranked 24^th in the NAIA Coaches' Top 25 Preseason Poll, open the season at 5 p.m. Saturday by hosting Hardin-Simmons at J.V. Hilliard Field. Admission to all WBU home soccer matches is free.
 
The Pioneers have taken the field twice for preseason home scrimmages, the first against Western Texas College before a match with West Texas A&M was cancelled due to weather.
 
While Ospina said the Pioneers are approaching the season with the same high expectations as always, he said it may take the team some time to get where they want to be due to a host of new faces.
 
"We don't intend to be our best at this point. What we like to do is get better every day and peak at the right time, meaning conference and post-season," Ospina said.
 
Wayland posted a 14-4-3 record (8-0-1 in the conference) last season, winning the SAC regular-season and tournament for the first time in program history before falling on the road in the opening round of nationals to MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.), 2-1, on a goal with 42 seconds left. The Pioneers were ranked 20^th to end the season.
 
"What happened last year is last year. This is a new year. We have to start all over again," Ospina, voted SAC 2016 Coach of the Year, said. "We still have to work really hard in order to earn our spot in the conference and go to nationals. It definitely will take a lot of effort, but I know the guys can do it. It will just be a matter of the guys doing it at the right time."
 
Gone off last year's squad are the Pioneers' two leading scorers in Guillermo Deal, who set a school record with 14 goals, and Taval Whittaker, who ended with 12. Whittaker, an All-SAC First Team pick, expired his eligibility while Deal, the SAC Freshman of the Year, transferred to NCAA Division II Top 15 Palm Beach Atlantic (Fla.).
 
Also gone are all-conference first-teamers Ezekiel Amestoy, who tied for third on last year's team with seven goals, defender Gian Scalise, who transferred to NCAA Division I Clemson, and senior center-midfielder Matthew Lowndes. All-conference second-team goalkeeper Joao Souza won't be available after suffering an apparent career-ending injury.
 
The lone all-conference pick returning is senior defender Darryn Hlabangana of Scotland. He'll be counted on for not only his skills but also on-field leadership, along with junior midfielders Alex Castillo and James Quinn, both veterans.
 
Among the many newcomers Ospina is counting on are a number of transfers, including midfielder Lochlan Reus, a transfer from Lewis & Clark (Ill.), forwards Luis Almeida and Richardo Ramos, both transfers from San Jacinto College in Pasadena where Amestoy once played, and senior forward Cooper Gaypia, a transfer from NCAA Division II Mount Olive (N.C.).
 
They'll make up much of the Pioneers' rebuilt offense.
 
"All of our strikers are new," Ospina said.
 
The coach hopes the handful of veterans and many newcomers will blend to bring Wayland another conference championship in 2017. To do it, they'll face stiff competition from 18^th-ranked John Brown (Ark.), which returns most of its team from last year when Wayland edged the Golden Eagles, 4-3 in double overtime. Wayland takes on JBU, the coaches' pick to win the conference, in its third SAC match Oct. 5 in Siloam Springs.
 
Ospina also expects tough matches against USAO, which handed the Pioneers their only SAC blemish last year with a scoreless tie, Southwestern Christian and Texas Wesleyan, among others.