JERSEY CITY, N.J. (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | The New Jersey City University men's soccer team was one of the 10 most improved teams in the nation in 2016, breaking a school record by starting the season at 7-0-0 behind first-year head coach Joe Cullen. But the young Gothic Knights struggled when New Jersey Athletic Conference play rolled around and their record dipped below .500 at the end of the year (8-10-1).
 
"We were consistently starting 5-8 freshmen in every conference last year which allowed for a ton of experience, both good and bad," recalled Cullen, himself part of four consecutive NJAC championship teams as a player at rival Montclair State. "Guys learned what the conference was all about and now understand what does and doesn't work. We obviously took our lumps in the conference last year [0-9 NJAC] but with the returning group now "getting it" and the talented fresh faces, I think this group is in a much better position to compete than they were last year."
 
Cullen returns 14 players from that successful 2016 club, including seven starters. Meanwhile, he and his coaching staff have added 19 players to what will be a competitive 33-man squad.
 
"For this 2017 team to be successful, we need to build upon last year and continue to get better," said Cullen. "Obviously wins and losses are a major piece of this but it's not the whole objective. Guys have started to understand expectations of themselves and the group and now need to start holding up their end of the deal. We are looking to continue to grow, continue to build on last year's success and not be complacent. Getting better as a group every year on and off the field needs to be the immediate goal."
 

Unquestionably, the 2017 Gothic Knights are a better team, even with several notable losses. An 18-game schedule awaits when the 59th season kicks off on September 1.
 
"Experience and time has been the biggest aid for the returning guys," Cullen noted. "Everyone is a year older and smarter and doesn't want the same results as last year. It's a hungry and gritty group and I think they will start to find their identity this year. Meanwhile, the roster has grown significantly from the low-20s to the mid-30s this year. We have more guys coming in than there have been in a while and a solid group of returners as well. The talent level has risen as well and the staff is happy with how the guys have looked in the preseason."
 
Three returners will serve as 2017 tri-captains with senior back Luis Cruz (Princeton, NJ/West Windsor-Plainsboro South), junior forward Theo Sanoh (Jersey City, NJ/Dickinson) and sophomore midfielder Jose Salazar (Medellin, Colombia/Union City) selected to lead. All three played in all 19 games a year ago with Cruz and Sanoh among the six players to have started every game.
 
"The guys are here to buy in to the program, system and coaches and they have," Cullen said. "We have a committed and talented group of guys who are going to go out and do our best to get results. We are going to defend as a group and make other teams earn their goals, while not sitting back and attacking as much as possible."  
 
"The staff did their best to bring in the largest and most talented group we could and are very happy with what we landed. We have almost 20 new faces—many of whom who will make an instant impact here at NJCU. It's not easy for first-year guys to be an impact but I believe they will and they will learn a lot in year one here."
 
THE PLAYERS
 
Goalkeeper:
NJCU has four goalkeepers on its roster this year with two returners from a year ago. A pair of freshmen, 6-foot-1 Eric Lopes Silva (Newark, NJ/Newark East Side) and 6-foot-0 Aldahir Cazun (Jersey City, NJ/Dickinson) have joined the club and will compete for the starting nod with Lopes Silva, a First-Team All-Newark Public Schools and Second-Team All-Super Essex choice as a high school senior, the likely starter in game one. They will take the role relinquished by Adam Cassidy (Jersey City, NJ/Dickinson (via County Prep)), who started all 19 games last year but left the program. Also back are sophomores Steven Pires (Hillside, NJ/Hillside) and Danny Montehermoso (Union City, NJ/Union City), who both saw limited time as reserves in their first seasons.
 
Backs:
Defense is one area NJCU will have competition with 10 players listed as backs. Cruz, who has started all 55 games in his NJCU career, primarily as a midfielder, will slide to center back where he will team with freshman Walter Salmeron (North Bergen, NJ/North Bergen), a former First-Team All-Hudson County and all-state selection, who plays college soccer for the first time since graduating high school two years ago.
 
Edwin Carbajal (Rahway, NJ/Rahway), a two-year letterwinner who started 18 games last year, primarily at midfield is slotted in at left back while freshman Mike Almeida (Kearny, NJ/Kearny) is penciled in at right back.
 
Almeida, a transfer from Division I Rutgers where he did not play last year, was a big part of a Kearny High squad that was the last undefeated team standing during the 2015 prep season, finishing the year 21-1-2 and No. 6 in the state.
 
Sophomores Maykol Bello (Elizabeth, NJ/Elizabeth) and Ryan Farrell (South River, NJ/South River) will also vie for starting spots. Bello, a one-time NJAC Rookie of the Week, started 13 games last year (14 total played) while Farrell started five games after having the first half of his rookie campaign thwarted by injuries.
 
Four-year starting back Gabriel Freitas (Kearny, NJ/Kearny), a former All-NJAC selection, graduated and has joined the coaching staff as an assistant coach. Ryan Stelicos (East Brunswick, NJ/East Brunswick), who started all 19 games in the back as a freshman, did not return.
 
Other potentials in the back include sophomores Edgar Crespo (Newark, NJ/Science Park), a two-sport athlete who plays on the men's volleyball team and Douglas Reyes (Union City, NJ/Union City). Meanwhile, NJCU has added freshmen Eric Gil (Guttenberg, NJ/North Bergen), J.P. Lara Garcia (East Newark, NJ/Harrison), Angelo Romano (Cliffside Park, NJ/Cliffside Park) and Nelson Segovia (North Bergen, NJ/North Bergen).
 
Segovia is the second member of this family to play for the program. Older brother Christopher Segovia was a four-year starter from 2012-15 and a captain as a senior. The younger Segovia was Second-Team All-Hudson County in 2016.
 
Lara was a 2016 First-Team All-NJIC Liberty Division selection last fall. Harrison won the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 2 state title.
 
Romano's Cliffside Park squad was 14-4-1 and he was picked to the All-Big North First Team American Division after being Second-Team as a junior in 2015.
 
Midfielders:

NJCU is loaded in this area with 14 midfielders on the roster while its most notable loss was graduated captain Davauni Brown (Newark, NJ/Newark Tech), a four-year starter who had seven goals and seven assists as a senior (21 points).
 
Salazar, who produced five assists in his freshman campaign is the lone returning starter in the midfield and will play in a defensive center mid role while freshman Joe Burgos (Hackensack, NJ/St. Benedict’s Prep), a former player for national power St. Benedict's Prep in Newark, will be the attacking center mid. The tandem will be expected to be the club's playmakers and are guys the coaching staff will look to for creative playmaking.
 
Burgos, a transfer from Division I FDU, was part of arguably the best high school program in the nation. During his three seasons as a varsity player for the Gray Bees, they won three New Jersey state championships and two national titles.
 
Freshman Jonathan Franco (South River, NJ/South River), who is also an option at forward, will start at left mid while junior Ron Jones (Montclair, NJ/Montclair), a transfer from Moravian, is the right mid. Franco and Jones will likely be responsible for NJCU's corner kick pieces.
 
Franco, one of three South River graduates on the roster, was part of that program's 2015 state sectional championship and was a two-time First-Team All-Greater Middlesex County Blue Division selection in 2014 and 2015. He was a 2015 Third Team All-State Group 1 standout. Jones played in 33 games for the Greyhounds in two seasons, starting 15 games a year ago.
 
Returning letterwinners at midfield include senior Gabriel Luzbet (East Newark, NJ/Harrison) and sophomores Kevin Campos (Cliffside Park, NJ/Cliffside Park) and Bashar Elsherif (Princeton Junction, NJ/West Windsor-Plainsboro South). Luzbet, in his first season at NJCU, had a goal in 14 games. Campos played in all 19 games, scoring three times while starting 13 games. Elsherif was a spark off the bench, contributing two goals and five points in 19 games (five starts).
 
Other newcomers include Omar Elkiki (Bayonne, NJ/Bayonne), Diego López, Nell Dashan Nieves (Union City, NJ/Union City), Fabio Ramos (Newark, NJ/Newark East Side) and Howie Trindade (Newark, NJ/Newark East Side) will also be competing for time in the midfield. Trindade, who didn't play college soccer last year, was a First-Team All-Super Essex American Division pick in 2015 for a team that was ranked No. 17 in the state. Lopez was Second-Team All-Hudson in 2016.
 
Forwards:
Up top, at least five players will vie to play striker. NJCU suffered a big loss when Omar Ventura (Fairview, NJ/Cliffside Park), who led the team with 11 goals and 26 points (four assists) was lost for the season with an injury just weeks before camp opened. Sanoh, who was second on the club with nine goals and 22 points (four assists) is back and is poised for a big season.
 
"I expect Theo Sanoh (Jersey City, NJ/Dickinson) to be our top scorer," Cullen predicted. "He's going to have to be our most dangerous guy playing from the highest spot up the field."
 
Freshman Matthew Pietrzyk (South River, NJ/South River), a First-Team All-Greater Middlesex County Blue Division selection last year at South River High, will likely be the other starting forward.
 
Sophomore Thomas Loureiro (Newark, NJ/Science Park), and freshmen Joe Cappelluti (North Arlington, NJ/North Arlington) and Rob Khela (Cairo, Egypt/Alabasia; Alexandria, Egypt) are other options up top.
 
Coaches:
Cullen's staff maintains its stability with all four second-year assistant coaches—former Montclair State standouts Brendan Guzman, Michael Rudden, Dan Hernandez and Thomas Benack all back. Freitas is the lone addition to the staff.
 
THE SCHEDULE

In all, NJCU plays an 18-game slate, with an even distribution of eight home, eight away and two neutral site games. NJCU plays 10 games in September and eight in October, leading up to the start of the NJAC Tournament on October 28. NJCU seeks to qualify for the league's six-team tournament for the first time since 2008.
 
"I think the NJCU men's soccer team has a lot on their plate this year and a lot to prove as well," Cullen acknowledged. "We need to go out and get as many results as possible out of all the non-conference games. The in-conference play we all know if going to be tough and there's no dancing around that. Guys need to be up for the challenge or they are going to find out quickly this conference isn't for them. The NJAC is tough and if you want to compete in it you have to be ready to deal with all that comes with it."
 
In all, NJCU's 18 opponents had a combined record of 173-146-34 in 2016 for an impressive .538 winning percentage—a strength of schedule that will immediately test the Knights when it faces Wisconsin-Platteville in a season opener for the second time [2012] at the CSI Fall Classic. It faces St. Joseph's (Brooklyn) on the tournament's second day.
 
Two conference rivals open the year in the NSCAA/United Soccer Coaches Top 25 poll with Rutgers-Newark at No. 8 and Rowan ranked 17th. Kean, Montclair State, Rowan and Rutgers-Newark all made the 2016 NCAA Tournament with Newark surprisingly everyone by reaching the national quarterfinals. Six other opponents made the 2016 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) tournament—Moravian, NYU, Ramapo, Rutgers-Camden, Staten Island and William Paterson.
 
Overall, 10 of NJCU's 18 opponents reached the postseason a year ago, 11 won nine or more games and seven produced double-digit victories.
 
NJCU, which has benefitted from a new partnership with the New York Red Bulls that saw its practice facility upgraded this summer, opens its home schedule at the Robert L. McNulty Memorial Soccer Field on September 9 against Medgar Evers. That's the first of four home non-conference games this season with York (NY) on the slate for September 17, John Jay (October 16) and Moravian, where Cullen was assistant coach prior to coming to NJCU, on October 18.
 
NJCU opens NJAC play on September 16 at Rowan before playing its first home conference game on September 23 vs. TCNJ. The Knights play four home NJAC games this season, including Kean (October 11), Ramapo (October 14) and Montclair State, on Senior Day on October 25.
 
Road NJAC games include the Rowan contest, Rutgers-Newark (September 27), William Paterson (September 30), Rutgers-Camden (October 7) and Stockton (October 21).
 
NJCU also plays non-conference road matches with Brooklyn (September 11), Staten Island (September 13), and NYU (October 3).
 
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