Men's soccer season preview: Forwards
SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Scoring goals is something that's been hard to come by for the Bryant University men's soccer team over the last two years, with the team combining for just 34 goals in 32 total games in the 2015 and 2016 seasons. This year, they're looking to turn that around.
This is part one of a three-part series preview the Bryant men's soccer team's upcoming season. We will preview the midfielders on Tuesday and the defenders on Wednesday.
"We've got a lot of people, but it's a jigsaw puzzle right now," head coach Seamus Purcell said after his team's exhibition on Monday. "We have to find the right pieces and put it all together."
The Bulldogs return their top scorer in Nathaniel Brown (Queens, N.Y.), who tallied seven points in last year's campaign, totaling three goals and one assist. Brown will be joined up top by three returners in senior Matt Brouillette (Shelton, Conn.) and juniors Ricardo Becerra (Southlake, Texas) and Vasil Mastur (Millburn, N.J.).
Purcell is also looking towards set pieces to be a focal point of the team's scoring in 2017 and is calling on his team to up the ante on restarts.
"On set plays, we have to do a better job, making sure we get good crosses and quality coming in to give us a chance to put the ball in the back of the net," Purcell said.
Bryant's attacking lineup is bolstered by the arrival of three freshmen in Jared Lee (South Setauket, N.Y.), Anthony Barreria (Foxboro, Mass.) and Felipe Cypriano (Malden, Mass.).
The Bulldogs offense will be tested to start the year, playing four of their first five games on the road, including games against Brown and Providence, both of which held clean sheets against them a season ago.
With just one player who recorded multiple goals last season returning in Brown, Purcell is looking to the depth they have to start producing.
"If you don't have goal scorers, then you have scoring by committee," Purcell said. "You need to have players running through the midfield, getting into the box and on the end of crosses and that's hard because it's a lot of work."
Purcell and the Bulldogs are hoping that work pays off when Bryant takes the field Friday in its season opener against UMBC.