FORTVILLE — For coaches, having seniors and experienced players fill up a majority of their roster is a good thing.
Except for when they all graduate.
That’s the problem Mt. Vernon and head coach Matt Mayhew are dealing with this season.
Twelve of the 19 players on last year’s varsity team graduated.
For Mayhew, the mentality entering this season is simple. It’s next man up.
“We had a pretty solid JV team last season, so a lot of those guys are being forced to step up now,” Mayhew said. “It’s just going to depend on how they do stepping up into those bigger roles, but we are pretty junior heavy this year.”
A team that went 9-6 overall and 5-2 in the Hoosier Heritage Conference last season will now have a new man in net, an entire new defense in front of him, and just three players who played key varsity minutes last season.
Those three are seniors Nick Heitman and Xander Sokol and sophomore Charlie Cole.
“Being the only three guys that had considerable minutes last year, Nick, Charlie, and Xander are really having to step up for us this season,” Mayhew said.
Along with an entirely new look on defense, the Marauders lose their top four goalscorers from last season in Akseli Huopalahti (9), Zach Johnson (7), Brennan LaBelle (6), and Evan LeRoy (5).
Cole, who scored four goals as a freshman, and Heitman, who scored three, will look to pick up some of that production lost on offense.
Along with the goal scoring, Cole led the team with six assists.
“Charlie is really going to have to carry some of the offensive load for us. We hope that he can do that,” Mayhew said. “He’s been a pretty good leader for us so far in training this summer, so hopefully he can continue to build on that and be a spark for us.”
In goal, the Marauders will turn to junior Will Keppler to replace Bryce Glazier, who started the last two seasons.
Kepler was the junior varsity team’s main goalie and saw major minutes in one varsity game when Glazier went down with an injury.
“Will’s looked pretty good. We’ve had a few summer games, and he played fairly well making that transition over to varsity,” Mayhew said. “We’ve just got to see come the regular season if he can keep his hands within him and is confident in the net. Hopefully, his nerves stay calm, and he can get in there and do well for us.”
Helping to try and limit opposing offenses will be the defenders in front of him. Juniors Brock Austel, Zane Kaminski, Carson Ofarrell, and sophomores Antonio Reske and Brady Webber are the five defenders listed on the Mt. Vernon roster.
All will be playing varsity for the first time.
“They did pretty good in summer ball for having no varsity experience, but it’s another thing where we’re just going to have to see how they respond when the regular season starts,” Mayhew said.
Even with a mostly inexperienced team, the goals are the same for Mayhew and company as they are every year.
“The goal is always to win conference and sectional, but we talked about it, and we want to just have minimal mistakes on our end,” Mayhew said. “We want to be competitive, build upon last year, and hopefully get towards the top of the conference.”
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2023 Mt. Vernon boys soccer schedule
Date;Opponent;Time
Aug. 12;at Hamilton Southeastern;10:30 a.m.
Aug. 15;vs. Richmond;7 p.m.
Aug. 17;at Warren Central;7 p.m.
Aug. 19;vs. New Castle;12 p.m.
Aug. 22;at Delta;6 p.m.
Aug. 29;vs. New Palestine;7 p.m.
Aug. 31;vs. Yorktown;5:30 p.m.
Sept. 7;at Greenfield-Central;7 p.m.
Sept. 12;vs. Shelbyville;7 p.m.
Sept. 16;Marauder Classic;10:30 a.m.
Sept. 21;at Pendleton Heights;7 p.m.
Sept. 25;at Lawrence Central;7 p.m.
Sept. 26;vs. Ben Davis;7:30 p.m.
Sept. 28;at Rushville;6 p.m.
