By: Sean Moylan
Mike Flynn’s Florence Township Memorial boys’ varsity soccer team’s defense is not where he wants it to be yet. That’s not to say it’s bad, it’s actually the strongest part of the team. But Flynn needs the defense to be nearly flawless if the Flashes are to finish over .500 this year.
"This is going to be a team where we can’t make any mental mistakes," said Flynn, whose Flashes posted an 11-8-2 record last season. "It’s going to be a challenge this year. We have a tough schedule and we’re young in key areas. We’re not going to get a lot of chances to score in matches."
Furthermore, Florence is breaking in a pair of new goalies in junior John Bartosh and sophomore Greg Gonzalez. One of those two is expected to win the varsity job.
Defensively the Flashes should be solid with junior D.J. Pittinger at the sweeper spot, senior Kyle Carlson returning as the stopper and seniors Stephen Worstall and Dave Bowen both being used as outside defenders. And even in the midfield, junior Cory Haluska possesses strong defensive skills.
Juniors Joe Laureti, Erik Voj and Justin Stone are also expected to start in the midfield. On the forward line, the Flashes will feature sophomore Milo Milosovici.
Either Brian Phelan (a junior midfielder/defender), Mike Smith (a senior forward), Nick Bencze (a sophomore midfielder), Chris King (a freshman midfielder/defender) or Chris Green (a freshman midfielder) will be the Flashes’ final varsity starter. But the other listed players should get varsity playing time as well.
The Flashes graduated some solid scorers in Ugur Evci and Eric Centofanti and the graduation of Evan DiPasquale was also a big loss to the squad. However, even when he had superstar forwards like Adam Borota, Willie Krangar and "A.O.", Flynn always built his teams around the defense. So if the defense does well, Florence should sctratch out enough goals to win its fair share of games. As always, Flynn will be assisted by Ovi Dragos, who also has a great mind for the game of soccer.
Florence is scheduled to open at Trenton Catholic on Friday. It is scheduled at Holy Cross on Monday. And on Wednesday Florence is scheduled to host Moorestown Friends.
NBC
Last season Tim Tedesco’s Northern Burlington County Regional High School boys’ varsity soccer team made a name for itself by beating some of the best teams in South Jersey and making the playoffs for the first time in four years. Yet just when the Greyhounds returned to prominence, they graduated most of their superstars, including Jay Castaldo, who is playing soccer at Farleigh Dickinson, Dave Rogers and Jeff VanGuilder.
"We lost 12 of 18 varsity players," said Tedesco. "And we’re only returning two varsity starters (Matt Csontos and Dan Ongaro)."
However, things are not nearly as bleak as they seem on the surface, as 70 kids came out to play NBC boys’ soccer this fall.
"There’s a lot more competition for spots on this year’s varsity team," said Tedesco. "A lot of people got into games for us last year. And this year I think we’re going to be pretty strong across the middle. It’s just going to take us some time. We’re trying to find guys spots and we have a lot of guys playing the same positions."
This year Tedesco moved Ongaro up from the defense to play in the midfield with Csontos, a center midfielder. The two junior co-captains will anchor the squad. Sean McGlynn (a senior defender), Ryan McGoldrick (a senior midfielder) and Chris Patterson (a senior forward) are other returning players who saw a lot of varsity action last season.
This season NBC will have a new varsity goalie in sophomore Steve Fenstermacher.
"He looks good. He now feels more comfortable with directing the guys in front of him," said Tedesco of Fenstermacher.
Matt Phillips (a senior forward), Jimmy Phillips (a junior midfielder), Will Stevenson (a senior defender), Adam Rotsides (a junior defender), Brandon Cominsky (a junior forward), Bryant Castens (a junior defender), Danny Busz ( a junior defender), R.J. Kirk (a junior forward), Saidu Mustapha (a junior forward), Dave Specca (a junior defender), J.J. Schmitt (a junior goalkeeper), Joe Larkin (a junior midfielder), Wade Veselka (a junior defender), Brandon Kornelun (a sophomore midfielder) and Halil Gungor (a junior forward) are the other varsity players.
Tedesco’s assistant is Mark Housel. Mike Trojak coaches the junior varsity squad while Scott Conover coaches the freshmen. NBC waited too long to get back to the playoffs and Ongaro, Csontos and company are not going to let their post season dreams slip way just because the team is a little inexperienced.
"We can make another playoff push. Those guys really want to get us back there," noted Tedesco.
Tedesco likes this year’s squad but he also knows they’ll need a little time to jell as a team. He just hopes his Greyhounds can win enough of their early games to stay alive in the playoff hunt.
NBC is scheduled to host Moorestown on Friday. NBC is scheduled at Riverside on Monday and at Pemberton on Wednesday.
LCA
Last year the Life Center Academy boys’ varsity soccer team beat Girard College to, once again, capture the Penn-Jersey title.
This year, Art Steffen’s Warriors are going for their seventh title but they’ll need for new defenders to step up and make up for the loss of super fullbacks David Cotton and James Todd.
"Everything will depend on how good my defense is, but that’s asking a lot," said Steffen, who is only returning one starting defender (junior Timmy Steffen) from last year’s team. "Most of these guys never played soccer before."
The Warriors have some strong players the front line, so they should score a decent amount of goals this season. Senior Gabriel Grabin (a halfback) and junior Andrew Spright (halfback) will battle for playing time at the goalkeeper position, but both should see action even when they are not playing directly in front of the net.
LCA’s other players this year are Chad Davis (a senior halfback/forward), Jason Kurlander (a senior halfback/fullback), Jacob Foerter (a senior forward/halfback), Michael Kaklamanos (a senior forward/halfback), Jim Hettler (a senior halfback/fullback), Anothy Pena (a senior halfback), Justin Rodregus (a junior halfback), Abdiel Rivera (a sophomore forward/halfback), Kyle Marrerr (a sophomore forward/halfback), Tom Kurtz (a sophomore forward/halfback), Kevin Bailey (a sophomore forward/halfback), Ji Joene (a sophomore halfback) and Kyle Kingston (a freshman halfback). Meanwhile Steffen can play any position but goalie.
"This year the frontline is going to be young (but good)," said Steffen, who will be assisted by Norman Davis. "I think Saint Mary’s is going to be the team to beat this year."
Somehow, some way, Steffen’s teams always seem to be in the mix for a Penn-Jersey title and this year should be no different. He has well over 100 career wins in his 10 years of coaching the team. LCA will add at least one more player to its varsity roster.
LCA is scheduled to host Philadelphia Montgomery Christian Academy on Friday, Allentown on Saturday and Moorestown Friends on Monday.

