Men's Soccer Hopes to Rebound in '12 After Past Struggles

With the new soccer season just underway and their North Atlantic Conference schedule about to begin, the 2012 Lyndon State College Men's soccer team is eager to improve on their mediocre 6-11-1 (3-5-1 NAC)record from a year ago. A good mix of young and experienced players with eight freshmen and seven seniors has this team poised to make a strong playoff run through the NAC.

Leading scorer Patrice Lumumba returns for his senior season after scoring 11 goals as a junior, which was good for fourth best in the Northern Atlantic Conference. His senior teammate and goalkeeper Jason Gray is also coming off a stellar season, ranking second in the conference with 29 saves.

The two senior captains for the new version of this soccer team are three-year starter Matt Browne (Seymour, CT) along with four-year starter Patrick Hilton (Lyndon, VT).

"Rallying the troops and keeping everyone positive has been a learning experience throughout the beginning of the season," says Browne. "We've had a lot of tough games to begin the season that we didn't fully expect to win, but its still hard to deal with outcome--For us, It's all about preparing ourselves for the grind of the NAC conference schedule."

The Hornets (1-4) have yet to face an in conference foe. When asked about the team's main goal for the season, Browne quickly responded, "Win the NAC, plain and simple".

Doing so would automatically qualify the Hornets for the Division 3 NCAA men's soccer tournament, which has never been done in school history.

"I think the fact that players like Patrice, Patrick, Jason, Sunny (Kyle Mecham), and I have been together for three years now will help us a lot, we all have a great bond on and off of the field."

As the season turns towards the conference schedule with a big matchup at Castleton (4-1; 0-0 NAC) this Saturday, Browne and the Hornets look to rely on their experienced play to lead them to victory.