By Timothy Bold
The Scene staff
Another trip to the national community college soccer tournament for the St. Louis Community College men’s team looked disappointingly similar to the one last year.
The Archers split two games in pool play on Nov. 12-13 at Daytona State College in Daytona Beach, Fla., and were eliminated. They went into the tournament seeded 10th among 12 teams and were shut out 3-0 in the first qualifying match to third-seeded Barton Community College of Kansas, the eventual tournament runner-up.
A missed penalty kick by sophomore midfielder Noah Vezzu late in the game concluded a lackluster performance.
Day two was a different story against Georgia Military. Playing with fire and intensity, the Archers got the game-winner from Vezzu in extra time in a 2-1 victory.
“We felt brilliant, obviously, a pedigree for JUCO soccer (competition),” sophomore captain Josh Graham said. “We drove 17 hours — we’re not going home without a win.”
Pima Community College in Arizona won the national title, beating Barton 2-1.
The Archers finished with a 19-4 record and ranked eighth in NCJAA Division I. For the second year in a row, the Archers defeated Illinois Central College 3-1 for the Central District championship and earned their third Region 16 title in succession. They were also champions of the Missouri Community College Athletic Conference.
A year ago, the Archers went into the national tournament with high hopes, ranking No. 1, but failed to advance out of pool play.
Graham and Vezzu joined fellow sophomores Savino Livornese and Charlie Norman on the first-team MCCAC conference team, and Tim Mosby won coach of the year. The four players were the team’s only returnees from last season.
“This team impressed me the most for their willingness to be flexible, play out of position and never complain — selfless guys wanting to win,” Mosby said.
The team had different expectations coming off a No.1 ranking in the country, a taste of success in the NCJAA tournament and seeing two players, Connor Summerhill and Chris Eduardo, named All-Americans.
“That team was very strong, having bigger characters and technically better,” Graham said. “We did very well this season, and the expectations weren’t as high as last year’s team, so no pressure really.”
The 2018-2019 team added eight players from four continents, bringing different accents that developed chemistry. Those freshmen were Keisuke Mafune (Indonesia), Fortu Hernandez (Venezuela), Ricky Turcis (Italy), Kevin Zapata and Camilo Castro (Canada), Ricardo Navia (Ecuador), Malte Oxenberg (Denmark) and Odaine Reid (Jamaica), plus eight other freshmen from the United Kingdom, who joined five fellow countrymen who were sophomores.
The team had six St. Louis area players, all freshmen: Chase Horst, Alec Buol, Philippo Barkat, Ben Sanders, Alem Sabic and Kaleb Weeks.
Turcis, a midfielder who led the team with 17 goals, found the club through an agency. “It was random, I wasn’t looking for it. Just happened,” he said. He wasn’t familiar with the program but decided to try out in January and now loves playing for the team. “A good group of guys —everyone gets along,” he said. “We’re like family.”
Mosby uses ex-college teammates, friends and agencies to recruit international student athletes.
Developing a system from a diverse unit took some bumps and bruises early in the regular season. The Archers’ first defeat was 4-3 to Parkland College of Illinois in the fifth game of the season.
Another wakeup call was losing twice more to Illinois Central College and Lewis and Clark.
“It’s way better to lose early than late,” Mosby said. “You’re used to losing so you learn how to react.” After the four sophomores rode on a cloud from last year’s success, this season was an eye opener.
The team was unranked nationally the majority of the season but won its final eight games going into the national tournament.
Mosby felt the team “started gelling towards the middle of the season when the players were healthy and playing together. It takes the full season to stride.”
Zapata said, “The beginning of the season we started off slow, but we adapted to each other and started clicking at the end of the season.”
Graham, from Manchester, England, is attracting NCAA Division I attention with scholarship offers from the likes of St. Louis U., Pittsburgh, Siena and others. Vezzu and Livornese have gotten Division II and NAIA attention.