Ligonier Valley boys adjust to new lineup

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, August 25, 2017 | 6:18 PM

The Ligonier Valley boys soccer team is looking to build off of a 10-7 record from last year, being taken out in the second round of the District 6 playoffs.

After losing a couple of key players, the Rams will have a mix of six seniors and five underclassmen in the starting lineup.

“With the loss of guys like captain and leading scorer Nathan Hugo and defensive star Nick Gongaware, we will have to make adjustments,” coach Kip Crumrine said. “We will need some guys to step up in their place and pick up the scoring from last year.”

“We believe that we can transfer over a lot of what we did last year into this year with the guys that we have,” senior Kevin Huber added. “We made a some changes to our attacking style with more possession time and trying to get the ball behind the defense. We just have to execute.”

Crumrine mentioned the lack of experience, but believes it can be made up by the chemistry within the team.

“A lot of these guys have been friends and playing the game with each other for a long time now,” Crumrine said. “They know where each other is going to be and can read each other. It helps with what we want to do with spreading out, reading the field, passing and ultimately finishing.”

“To put it simply, we just enjoy playing the game with each other,” Huber said. “We know what we have to do and we trust and believe in each other.”

Although there was some success on what they got out of last year, the Rams are looking for more. Crumrine and Huber both are looking to make improvements on offense and defense.

“If we want to make moves this year, we are going to have to score more,” Crumrine said. “We will continue to work on different ways to be effective offensively and see what works best with our skill set.”

“Defensively we need to be more aggressive,” Huber said. “Last year we did a lot of watching on defense. We need to be able to step up to them and counter attack. It will benefit us on both sides of the ball.”

Both Crumrine and Huber are focused on taking it one game at a time but fully expect to make the playoffs.

“Our main focus right is improving on what we were able to do last season,” Crumrine said. “We believe if we make the playoffs, we can put together something and make a run.”

The Rams season will kick off their season Sept. 5, in a non-section game at 4:30 p.m. at Berlin Brothersvalley.

“The goal is always to win,” Huber said. “We believe in the group that we got and will continue to improve every game.”

Cody Scott is a freelance writer.

Tags: Ligonier Valley