WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – The William & Mary men's soccer team continues its stretch of three consecutive games against Big South opponents and open a stretch of three striaght Tuesday home matches as they welcome Longwood on Tuesday, Sept. 6. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
TribeAthletics.com caught up with head coach
Chris Norris to discuss the win at Liberty,
Reeves Trott winning CAA Rookie of the Week, and the match against Longwood. The video preview is available through the above link or by clicking
here.
Scouting the Tribe
William & Mary looks to move its winning streak to three games as they welcome Longwood to Martin Family Stadium on Tuesday night. The Tribe is coming off of a 2-0 week where they beat No. 21 Coastal Carolina (2-1) and Liberty (2-0). Freshman
Reeves Trott leads the Green and Gold with four points on a pair of goals and is the lone player with multiple goals on the team. Sophomore
Ryder Bell is second on the team with three points (one goal, one assist), while classmate
Antonio Bustamante and junior
William Eskay have also added goals. Redshirt junior goalkeeper
Phil Breno has played every minute in goal so far this season. He owns a 1.00 goals-against average, with five saves, and a shutout.
Scouting the Lancers
Longwood enters Tuesday contest with an unbeaten 1-0-1 record. The Lancers picked up a victory over VMI (4-0) and tied George Mason (1-1). Eoin O'Donovan leads the Lancers with three points on a goal and an assist. Max Poelker, Connor Rea, Zach Corcoran, and Evan Fowler also have tallied goals for Longwood. Carlos Canas has started both games in goal, while Lance Da Silva came on in relief against VMI. Canas owns a 0.46 goals-against-average and has made five saves.
Series History vs. Longwood
W&M and Longwood meet for the sixth time in program history when the two teams collide on Tuesday. The Tribe holds a perfect 5-0-0 mark against the Lancers in the series. Last season the two teams met in Farmville with the Tribe pulling out a 3-2 double overtime victory. Junior
William Eskay's golden goal lifted the Tribe to victory in the match. W&M had goals from sophomores
Antonio Bustamante and
Ryder Bell in the match as well.
The Road Ahead
The Green and Gold conclude its stretch of matches against Big South opponents as they travel to Campbell for a match on Saturday, Sept. 10. W&M will then return home for a match against nationally ranked Georgetown on Tuesday, Sept. 13. Both matches are set for 7 p.m. kickoffs.
Weekly Awards
Freshman
Reeves Trott became the first Tribe player to win a weekly award as he was named CAA Rookie of the Week for the week of Sept. 5. Trott scored a pair of game-winning goals as W&M topped No. 21 Coastal Carolina and Liberty last week.
Off on the Right Foot
The Tribe has taken the lead in all three of its matches, so far this season. In the first two contests, W&M was able to do so at a quick rate with both goals coming before the 10-minute mark. Junior
William Eskay scored in the fifth minute against George Washington, before sophomore
Ryder Bell tallied in the eighth minute against Coastal Carolina.
Ranked Victories
With its win over No. 21 Coastal Carolina, the W&M men's soccer team has defeated a ranked opponent in seven of the last eight seasons. That includes a stretch of at least one ranked win from 2009-13. The Green and Gold also defeated a pair of No. 1 teams in a 10-day span back in 2013.
Record versus Conference Opponents
W&M continues its stretch of three straight games against Big South opponents as they host Longwood on Tuesday. Currently the Tribe is 1-0 in its matches against Big South schools Aside from the CAA, it is the most games against a single conference. W&M plays against the ACC and Atlantic 10 (0-1) twice, and have games against the Sun Belt (1-0), Big East, and Big Ten.
Connect Four
The Tribe had four players honored with CAA All-Preseason honors on Thursday afternoon. Junior
William Eskay and sophomores
Marcel Berry, and
Antonio Bustamante earned Preseason All-CAA honors. Sophomore
Ryder Bell was tabbed to the preseason honorable mention team.
Preseason Projections
W&M was selected to finish fifth in the CAA Preseason Poll by a vote of league's head coaches. Hofstra was selected to repeat as champion. Delaware (second), Elon (third), and UNCW (fourth) rounded out the top four.
Rated Rookie
Now sophomore
Marcel Berry became just the third player in school history to be named the CAA Rookie of the Year in 2015. However that was not where the awards stopped. He was named the No. 46 best freshman by TopDrawerSoccer.com and was a Third-Team Freshman All-American by College Soccer News. Berry appeared 17 games with 15 starts, scoring three goals, four assists, and 10 points.
Summer Championship
Sophomore
Ryder Bell helped his summer team AFC Cleveland to the NPSL championship this summer. Bell scored a goal to ice the victory in stoppage time. He finished the summer with two goals and four points, but also added a pair of goals in a friendly.
Setting the Slate
W&M welcomes 11 opponents in 2016, including preseason top 25 teams No. 8 North Carolina, No. 10 Georgetown, and No. 21 Coastal Carolina. The Tribe will also head to No. 17 Virginia later in the season.
Familiar Faces
The Tribe returns nine of its 11 starts from last season and also returns 20 players from the team. Of those returners four them scored double-figure points for the Tribe including
William Eskay,
Ryder Bell,
Marcel Berry, and
Antonio Bustamante. That quartet are also returning All-CAA players.
New Kids on the Block
The Green and Gold has five true freshman on the roster in
Ricardo Acosta,
Julian Ngoh,
Daniel McBride,
Tanner Shane, and
Reeves Trott. Along with the freshman, W&M welcomes transfers redshirt junior
Phil Breno (UMBC) and redshirt freshman
Hristo Bustamante (George Mason).
