Reaching the conference playoffs for the first time since 1998 and returning nine starters, including six all-conference selections and RPI’s Athlete of the Year, has still not changed Rensselaer men’s soccer coach Adam Clinton’s attitude heading into the 2005 season.
“I’m cautiously optimistic,” Clinton, who is entering his third year at the helm for the Red Hawks, said repeating the same phrase he used prior to RPI’s 2004 campaign. “We haven’t accomplished anything yet.”
Clinton is reserved in predicting where his team will finish, but he openly acknowledges his team has the potential to succeed, especially with a strong defensive core returning.
Joe Johnson ’06—a First-Team All Region, First-Team All-Liberty League, and Rensselaer Athlete of Year—anchors a defensive backfield which returns all four of its starters. Johnson’s athleticism and versatility, along with the added experience and development of goalkeeper Nick Bochette ’07 will allow the Red Hawks to take more chances on offense, an area they realize they must address.
“We have the same question we have had the last two years,” Clinton said. “We still don’t know who is going to score goals for us.”
The Red Hawks are returning their leading scorer and All-Liberty League selection in Craig DiDomenico ’06, who scored five goals and tallied two assists in 2004. Rensselaer will need more scoring from DiDomenico and Liberty League Rookie of the Year Gary Sroka ’06 after the graduation of Thomas Frost Anderson and Nick Ruggio. Kevin Grammer ’08, Sal Mangano ’08, and Tim Winser ’09 will also need to pick up their offensive production in order for Rensselaer to compete for the Liberty League title and the confernce spot in the NCAA Tournament.
“It going to be tough to replace Thomas and Nick,” said Clinton, who acknowledged freshmen would most likely be filling their positions. “Outside of Craig we really don’t have a great one-on-one player, so we really have to manufacture goals.”
To help create more scoring opportunities, Clinton plans to send his outside defensive backs up in more attack situations, relying heavily on the talents of Johnson and Bochette to cover the gaps.
The Red Hawks only gave up 20 goals in 18 games last season while scoring 32 goals themselves. Clinton believes if his team can manage a minimum of 34 goals in the 2005 season, an average of just two goals a game, they will reach double-digit wins and return to the conference playoffs.
The 17-game schedule will not offer any comfort for the Red Hawks as they enter into the season. RPI will be forced to play five of its seven league contests and five of its last eight games on the road. The road trips will inlude two overnight trips, one to the North Country to face Clarkson and conference front runner St. Lawrence. The Red Hawks only league home games come in the opening weekend of conference play against rival Union and Skidmore on September 23 and 24.
Keene State and Plattsburgh State will also present the Red Hawks with two extremely challenging non-conference home match-ups in the midst of Rensselaer’s brutally competitve Liberty League calendar.
“The toughest games are always the conference games,” Clinton said. “We have to get off to a good start this year.”
But Clinton is less concerned about facing the tougher teams than in years past, citing an attitude change among his players as the main reason.
“We no longer walk into these games thinking we are going to lose,” Clinton said. “We have a bit of competitive arrogance. We think we can win every game and that’s a great feeling to have.”
RPI will need all of its “arrogance,” hunger, and motivation in order to reach its preseason goal of recording double-digit wins and qualifying the NCAA Tournament, which would require the Red Hawks to defeat national powerhouse St. Lawrence.
The Red Hawks, however, are confident entering the season after they tied Division I Siena in a scrimmage on Friday and saw equal success in two other scrimmages this weekend and start the season with back-to-back home games against SUNYIT and Southern Maine this weekend, September 3 and 4.
“We want to carry the momentum from last year into this season.” Clinton said. “We got in the playoffs but we haven’t won a game yet, and if we want to reach the NCAA we have to find a way to do that, more than once.”
