LUMBERTON — Soccer season is underway for two Robeson County high schools, with two more quick to follow.
Purnell Swett played its season opener on Monday and Lumberton played its first game Tuesday. St. Pauls will play on Wednesday and Red Springs’ opener in Sept. 5.
The season will feature the first Robeson Cup, a tournament between the four Robeson County programs that opens Sept. 5 and concludes on Sept. 7.
Lumberton
The Pirates were 10-11-1 last season and 7-7 in the Sandhills Athletic Conference, a year removed from a 16-7 record in 2017.
This year’s Lumberton team blends youth and experience, with seven seniors on the roster.
“We’ve got a good group of seniors, but we’re also relying heavily on some young players,” coach Kenny Simmons said. “We’re not a big team physically, but we have the potential to have a good season and compete for a playoff spot. We’ve just got to continue to work hard and get better.”
Simmons says he needs some of his upperclassman to become standout players to return to the successes of two years ago.
“We’ve got a talented bunch across the board, but we’re going to need some players to step up and score some goals for us,” he said.
Key players for the Pirates include junior Jorge Gomez, who Simmons called his best all-around player at attacking center, sophomore Julian McGarahan anchoring the defense and junior Eloy Hernandez at forward. Simmons said seniors Nate Cribb and Kameron Chavis will be “workhorses” at multiple positions.
The Pirates are 1-1 after falling to Gray’s Creek Tuesday and defeating Village Christian Academy Wednesday.
Purnell Swett
The Rams struggled in 2018, with a 5-12-2 overall record and a 3-11 mark in the SAC, and graduated nine seniors.
Entering the 2019 season, coach Alaric Strickland says that his team isn’t necessarily young as far as their ages, but they are young in terms of how much game experience they have. The team has seven seniors, but only two have played significant time in the past.
In those circumstances, Strickland is calling on the players who do have experience to step up.
“I expect my returning players and my senior goalie to lead by example; that’s what I’m hoping for this season,” Strickland said. “We’ve got to get better each and every game and take each game as best we can, and give the effort to at least be competitive in each game.”
Senior goalkeeper Nick Ramirez and junior forward/midfielder Jafet Robles are captains for the Rams. Midfielders Jalen Hunt and Zachary Hunt and defender Nehemiah Maynor will be key sophomores.
“Those are core players that played last year; we expect bigger things from them this year,” Strickland said.
The Rams are off to a 1-2 start, beating Whiteville on Monday before losing to Tuesday to Hoggard and Wednesday to South View.
Red Springs
William Judd takes over the Red Devils program after a 6-12 season last year and a 5-9 Three Rivers Conference slate. Judd was an assistant on last year’s program and says trust between he and his team, and on the team among themselves, will be a key to success.
“I want them to trust each other and they’ve got to trust me to lead them,” Judd said. “We’re doing a lot of team-building stuff now, early in the season, and I can see a difference in a matter of two weeks in how far they’ve come working together.”
The Red Devils allowed 3.1 goals per game last year, but Judd hopes the unit will improve under the leadership of senior defender/midfielder Alex Martinez.
“I think we need to learn to utilize our speed better,” Judd said. “Last year I felt like our defense could have played better and I think we could have used more speed in the back.”
Other key players include sophomore forward/midfielder Javier Villagomez, sophomore Diego Lazaro, junior midfielder/forward Daniel Rojas and senior midfielder/defender Steve Ruiz.
St. Pauls
St. Pauls is the only Robeson County team who is coming off of a playoff appearance in 2018, as the Bulldogs were 15-4 overall and 11-3 in TRC play before losing in the first round to East Montgomery.
However, a return trip to the playoffs isn’t coach Brent Martin’s key objective for this season. Instead, in a program that lost 13 seniors off last year’s team and features only three seniors this year, Martin’s goal is to improve and build for the future.
“This year is the complete definition of a building year for us, or a year of experience,” he said. “We have no expectations for this group other than to just be as competitive as they possibly can be and use this year to gain valuable experience.”
Key players for the Bulldogs include senior fullback/midfielder Christopher Canuto, junior defender Sergio Sanchez, junior defender/midfielder Allan Diaz, junior forward Aimar Ramos and sophomore forward Jason Zamora.
“Those are the guys returning from varsity last year so they’ll definitely be key players for us; I’m going to lean on them,” Martin said.
