Third-ranked Hawks open season at home on Sunday

The third-ranked Rockhurst men's soccer team will kick off the 2018 season at home against Fort Hays State at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at Bourke Field.

Rockhurst and Fort Hays State played to a scoreless tie last year in Hays, Kansas. The Tigers opened their season with a 2-1 victory at home over McKendree Friday night.

Head coach Tony Tocco, who ranks second in all-time collegiate men's soccer victories with 696 wins, greets five returning starters from last year's team. The 2017 Hawks finished third in the nation with a 16-2-3 record and advanced to the national semifinals in NCAA Division II.

Senior defenders Sal Caruso, Filippo Santandrea and Swann Vincent return, along with senior forward Umoh Ufot. All four earned All-GLVC honors last year.

"We need to find some players who can score goals. We lost two really good scorers in Kaleb Jackson and Adam Michel from last year," Tocco said. "We will have good speed in the back with our defenders. Our conference is going to very tough this year with three to four top notch teams."

The top newcomers are junior midfielder Pablo Salvador Lopez, junior forward Trevor Cissell, sophomore midfielder Federico Verlichi, junior midfielder Nandor Benucci and freshman forward Noah Mabry.

Print Friendly Version