Manson Trojans Soccer: Together

MANSON – Soccer heads into the 2018 season prepared to put in the work to make it back into playoffs after just missing it last season. In his second year as varsity head coach, Jared Mumley, with Assistant Gabby Lopez are ready for the season.
The team landed at fourth in the league last year, just shy of making playoffs for the first time in years. “We fell short of playoffs by a pretty close margin,” Mumley stated, “Actually, just the loss in overtime to Oroville during our last game here.” Although their season didn’t continue on as long as they’d hoped, the team still ended the year with the best defensive record, he explained, “I’m proud of that as far as the team goes, but it was the first year in many that we didn’t make playoffs.”
So how do the Trojans soccer team plan on returning to playoffs this year? They will be focusing on strengthening their offense, explained Mumley, stating that he will be paying much closer attention to it this year. “I stick a lot to the defense, he said “but definitely now, knowing that we struggled just scoring goals, we will be working on our offense and shooting skills.”
Three strong returners this season, all seniors, include Eddie Sarmiento as central mid-fielder, and Marco Mendoza and Eduardo Escalera as defenders, Mumley pointed out, “they’ve been here since I just started and are very talented.” All three have been starters for their whole careers or at least close to it, he explained.
“Our theme this year is together, playing together, working together,” said Mumley, “we know that we can close any gap skill for skill with that togetherness of the team, and I’m really big into defending well as a team, from the forwards, back to the defenders, back to the goalie.” He explained that he emphasizes to the team, if they’re no goals or only allowing one, then they’re in the game, so this year, “we’re going to be in every game,” he said.
Although the team only has a handful or so of returning varsity this season, Mumley is optimistic for the season. “The biggest challenge will be getting the new kids up to speed,” he explained, “but I’m pretty sure we’ll have one or two freshman that will get some play time on varsity.” One, in particular, to watch for is Brian Orozco. Even though he may be a small kid, “he’s one of the most skilled kids I’ve seen (for his age) … I think he’ll do a lot for us and get some good goals.”