By Staff

Fall 2019 Preview: Joplin Soccer

By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)

While Joplin took a step back with its win total in 2018, the end result was the school’s first district championship in boys soccer in five seasons.

The upset-minded Eagles entered the Class 4 District 11 tournament as the bottom seed, but promptly knocked off top-seeded Republic on penalty kicks and then dispatched Central in the finals.

Joplin finished the year 9-17 after two-straight winning seasons.

“I don’t think we actually had a regular-season win outside of a weekend tournament until the last week of our regular season so we definitely had a lot of delayed success,” said Joplin coach Josh Thompson, an assistant last year who will be the team’s head coach this fall. “To win districts for the first time since I have been there, since any of our coaches or players have been there was certainly a pleasant surprise. It was just one of those situations where it took us some time for the whole team to figure each other out. We had two seniors go down with ACL injuries before the season even started and getting everybody to figure out how to play together with some new faces, it took all season but ended up working out at the end.”

Thompson is entering his fourth year with the program after serving as an assistant the previous three. He replaces district coach of the year Luis Percovich. Thompson also took over head coaching duties with the girls team last spring.

His first task is replacing nearly a dozen seniors who graduated from last year’s squad.

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“It’s going to be a very interesting season,” he said. “Very much up to what the boys want it to be. There’s a lot of them that got experience last year. Even though we had a lot of seniors we still had some injuries. We’ll be returning a lot of players but there will also be a lot of new faces out there.”

The Eagles must replace a pair of all-district performers in Ethan Merino and James Hernandez. Merino, a forward and the team’s leading scorer for two seasons, scored twice in the district finals including the game winner on a header. He was named district MVP and also earned All-Region honors.

“He’s been a big deal for us,” Thompson said of Merino. “And there were a couple guys who didn’t make that all-district list that have been staples in the program for years. We had a couple seniors who were hurt but were big influences on the team as well. We lost a lot of our defense. We lost Ethan up top so it’s going to be tough to replace some of those key positions. Some good opportunities though for guys to step into new shoes.”

Key returners include seniors Rashawn Davis and Michael Landers and junior Connor Simon; each earned all-district honors.

Davis, a forward, will play a big role this year in the absence of Merino.

“He found a lot of success last year and especially in districts he had some big games,” Thompson said. “He’ll be big moving forward. Michael and Connor both play in the midfield so with them returning we hope it brings over some stability and they can lead with what they do on the field.”

Jackson Reynolds, a senior, returns to the back line but missed much of last season due to injuries. Sophomore Dilan Sanchez returns to the midfield after starting several games there last year. Sophomore Grayson Stovern also returns after seeing time on defense and in the midfield.

“As far as guys returning to those starting spots, that is most of them that had those chances last year,” Thompson said. “We’ll be playing a lot of sophomores out there I think this year.”

One of those sophomores is Andrew Taylor, who saw some brief action last season and has had a good preseason, Thompson said.

“He’ll be making a push,” he said.

Josh Yarnell will play in the back along with Jackson.

“I think Ray (Rashawn) returning on the attack is going to be a big strength for us and then defense is kind of being rebuilt,” Thompson said. “Most of that back line as well as a keeper are going to be fresh faces.”

More than half of Joplin’s roster will be freshmen and sophomores.

“We haven’t had too many preseason scrimmages yet to really get a feel,” Thompson said. “We certainly have a lot of guys who were effective whenever they were on the field last year even though we lost so many. It’ll come down to a lot of younger guys being leaders out there on the field since we have a lot less seniors than you would normally see. It can’t just be on those four or five guys’ shoulders.”

Joplin opens the season with home games Aug. 30 and Sept. 3 against Aurora and Carl Junction, respectively. The Eagles will play in the Parkview Invitational and Capital City Classic in September, and will host the Joplin Invitational in October.