DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (Aug. 28, 2018) – The Mercy College men's soccer team opens their 2018 season on Thursday, August 30th when they host Southern Connecticut State University at 3 p.m. The Mavericks will look to make their fourth ECC Tournament appearance in the last seven years.
Schedule
Third-year head coach Pedro Velazquez and the Mavericks will look to build on a successful 2017 season in which they won 13 games. The 13 wins were the most since 1998 and Mercy also qualified for the ECC Tournament as a No. 2 seed. The Mavericks were picked third in the ECC Preseason Poll and Velazquez looks to lead Mercy back to the ECC Tournament with several key returners and a strong recruiting class coming into the fold.
Leading the returners is junior Maximiliano Rebolledo-Camus who led the team last season with eight goals and 20 points. The junior appeared in 17 games with two game-winning goals. Also returning is junior Santiago Corral who produced two goals, three assists and 16 shots on goal in 18 games.
Also returning for Velazquez are juniors Manuel Achondo and Gaston Rozenblum who both had two goals and an assist a year ago and redshirt freshman Ryan Sipavicius looks to make an impact after redshirting last season. Seniors Alejandro Alvarez, Mariglen Verjoni, Freddy Marcel, Chris Valverde and graduate student Christopher Birnie will return for their final year at Mercy. Senior Mahamed Keita returns in goal for Velazquez after making one appearance last season with two saves.
The newcomers are led by junior Ignacio Mangada who scored 14 goals with three assists as a sophomore at Campbellsville University. Also joining the Mavericks are sophomore Francisco Ricci and graduate student Juan Lares from Warner University. Ricci appeared in ten games last season on defense for the Royals and Lares played in eight games on defense last year.
Velazquez also brings in sophomore Jordan Williams who was an All-Conference selection at North Carolina Wesleyan College as a goalkeeper after going 14-3 with a 0.82 goals against average and 53 saves in 18 games.
Also transferring in for Velazquez is junior Jose Izarra who joins the Mavericks from Marshalltown Community College. Izarra appeared in 12 games with five starts last season for Marshalltown. Junior Kevin Rodriguez joins the squad via ASA College and sophomore Nigel Hawthorne becomes a member of the Mavericks after transferring in from Millersville University.
Joining the team as freshmen are Aaron Denk-Gracia from Germany and Kevin Aguilar from the Bronx. Both will look to make an impact this season.
