Boys soccer: Eagles begin title defense

Posted under Apple Valley Sports,Eagan Sports,Rosemount Sports on Thursday 26 August 2010 at 12:53 pm

Apple Valley’s Tim Van Beck returns in goal for the Eagles as one of the top keepers in the state. Photo by Andy Rogers

by Andy Rogers
Thisweek Newspapers

Minnesota might never see a team like the one the Apple Valley boys soccer team had a year ago.

The Eagles won the Class AA state title and went undefeated.

“That was a dream team,” coach Chuck Scanlon said. “These guys aren’t too far behind. They have some good experience. It should be an interesting year.”

Although the team lost several top players to graduation, Apple Valley enters the season with the No. 1 ranking and another state title its final goal.

“We’d like to keep that winning streak up as long as possible,” Scanlon said. “We have lots of eager soccer players.”

The team’s second-leading scorer from 2009, Tom Obarski, is back, along with midfielder Simon  Goettl.

Scanlon said returning goalkeeper Tim Van Beck “is probably the best keeper in the state.”

He may see a few more shots than last year because the defense has almost completely turned over.

Sweeper Dan Schumacher is back, but the rest of the lineup consists of new starters Mike Shutt and Tim Ness.

Hudson Fasching will continue to strike at the opposition’s net. Dane Grundstrom, Nate Tenpas, Shawn Tangen and Alex Schams will hold ground in the midfield.

“The lineup is senior-heavy except for Fasching,” Scanlon said. “It’s a good nucleus. Hopefully we’ll pick up where we left off.

“We’re going to rely on senior experience to pick up everybody’s game.”

Scanlon is aware that every team the Eagles will face will give them their best effort. Early on the Eagles have a schedule that includes Northfield on Saturday, Farmington  on Tuesday and Richfield on Wednesday.

Scanlon said it will take two or three weeks until Apple Valley will be a really good team.

“They have a lot of bad habits from their summer teams to get through,” Scanlon said.

The Eagles’ first goal is to win the South Suburban Conference, which also features top-10 teams Eagan, Prior Lake and Bloomington Jefferson.

Eastview

After playing with a senior-heavy lineup in 2009, the Lightning will be striking with a younger team this season.

Eastview had a brutal schedule in 2009 with about half its games against top-10 teams in the state. The Lightning still defeated Eagan, tied with Eden Prairie and took Apple Valley into overtime.

Eastview will welcome returning players Ben Schmitz, Sam Benda, Joe Karam, Brennan Espinda- Bannick and Samuel Ruelas back to the field.

The team will have a wealth of experience at the goalkeeping and midfield positions, but they’ll need some goals to get wins.

“I’d like to successfully mold a young team into one that can be competitive in the new South Suburban Conference,” coach Scott Gustafson said.

Andy Rogers is at
andy.rogers@ecm-inc.com.

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Leave a comment

Please note: If this is your first time for posting a comment on ThisweekLive.com, your comment must first be approved by the editor who posted the article. Once you have had a comment approved, future comments will published immediately. This is to cut down on potential comment spam. Thank you.