By Staff

Fall 2019 Preview: Carthage Soccer

By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)

After suffering a 1-0 defeat to Central in the district opener, 2018 marked the second-straight season the Carthage boys soccer team didn’t win a district championship.

That qualifies as an unprecedented drought for the Tigers, who won 10-consecutive district titles before that and finished as the Class 3 state runner up in 2016.

As Carthage attempts to start a new winning streak this fall, much is uncertain.

“My expectations for this year’s group were we would be really good and really deep but we’ve lost a lot of players unexpectedly this offseason so right now there’s just a lot of question marks,” said coach Jacob Osborne.

Of the team’s six all-district performers and four all-conference honorees last season, it’s possible none will take the field this year, due in part to graduation and injuries.

Senior David Garcia, a first-team COC selection as a midfielder, tore his ACL in May and is out for the season.

“That’s a huge loss because he’s an outstanding player and he’s our team leader as well,” Osborne said. “He’s one of the better kids we’ve had come through our program.”

His is one of several injuries the team is dealing with.

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Junior Jose Castro, who Osborne envisions being a breakthrough player, tore his MCL in June and should return in time for the start of the season but could take some time to build up his conditioning. Goalkeeper Angel Ordonez, a junior, is also having surgery and will be replaced by senior Emmanuel Chavez.

“Really we’ve just been hit harder than I’ve ever seen or heard a team getting hit with losing players we didn’t expect to lose,” Osborne said.

Ordonez and Castro were two of just a few returning starters the Tigers were counting on, along with senior defender Anderson Vicente.

The good news is a sophomore class Osborne described as strong and deep.

“That’s one of the better classes we’ve had in quite a while,” he said. “Our JV last year was really strong and this group was a big reason why. There’s five right now that look like they will have a really good chance of being starters for us and then there’s another six or seven that will be on JV but I think can progress and become good, solid varsity players in the next year or two.”

The sophomore class includes players like Adrian Garrido, a full-time varsity player last season who Osborne expects will play a big role this fall. There’s Lester Mejia who saw varsity time as a defender and has looked “great” in the offseason. He’ll be back on defense this year.

Other key sophomores didn’t see varsity action last year but certainly will in 2019. They include Dani Morales, a defender and defensive midfielder; Walter Mejia, a midfielder; and Elmerson Contreras, a striker. Additionally, last year’s JV MVP returns in Kelvin Lopez, a center-mid and striker.

“He’ll be an important player for us,” Osborne said. “He’s a creative player.”

Someone else to keep an eye on is junior Jesus Alvarado. He led the junior varsity in scoring as a freshman but didn’t play last season.

The team’s overall numbers are down a little bit but could still equal about 50 players before cuts.

As far as expectations, Osborne is waiting to see what happens during the preseason.

“That’s whenever we’ll really be able to get a better idea or better feel for what we have,” he said. “That will be the time we’ll be able to set our goals. From offseason stuff I would say that one thing we’ll be able to do is get some scrappy wins. The kids play hard. It’s a young group but they love to play and so far they appear like they love to compete. We’ll see once we step onto a real field against real teams but right now those are qualities they are showing.

“We’ll definitely take some bumps and we’ll have some hard times just with the young group but I’m still really excited about it because there is a lot of talent there and the desire they appear to have can take them a long ways.”

Carthage opens the season at home against Branson on Sept. 3. The Tigers play in the Parkview tournament and Capital City Classic in September, and the Kansas City Showcase in October.