The men’s soccer team is considered
to be one of the best sports
programs at Bucks. This season,
the team fell one game short of
being in the championship game
and winning their second straight
title.
“The team was very talented
and knowledgeable again this
year,” Coach Justin Burroughs
said. “The issue this year was
mental mistakes.”
“These mistakes kept showing
up all year, both on defense and
offense. Unfortunately, our
strongest point was the midfield
this season,” Burroughs said.
Burroughs said the majority of
these mistakes were made on defense,
and other teams would use
this to their advantage by creating
turnovers that led to goals.
“The opposing team always
seemed to capitalize on our mistakes.
Yet we never really capitalized
on theirs,” Burroughs said.
“When we took the field, 99 percent
of the time, I felt we had the
better of the other team.”
“I don’t know why we made a
lot of mistakes,” Burroughs said.
“At times we were outworked
maybe because we overestimated
ourselves.”
These errors were evident in the
team’s final game, a 2-3 playoff
loss to Harrisburg on Oct. 24. The
game was also marked by poor
weather, although Burroughs felt
that made no difference.
“The rain played no role in our
loss to Harrisburg,” Burroughs
said. “We made some
mistakes early, maybe due to
overconfidence, and fell behind
early. We never really came
back.”
Despite the loss, the team can
look back on the season and consider
it a success. They had an
overall record of 11-6.
The first quarter of the season
went well with a 3-1 record, including
a big win against Philadelphia.
Through the first half of the
year, the team was 4-4. They experienced
their only consecutive
losses of the season toMercer and
Reading.
In the second half of the season,
the team went 7-2. They had
blowout games against Lehigh
Carbon, Philadelphia, Reading,
and Northampton. In those games
they outscored their opponents
28-2.
Winning has become a regular
occurrence for the men’s soccer
team; this is a huge feat for any
community college athletic program.
Many of Bucks’ athletic programs
struggle due to lack of interest
and team chemistry. This
happens partly due to community
college students not having athletics
high on their priority list. Burroughs
has coached soccer here
for the last five years. He has
many reasons why there has been
so much success over that time.
“You start by having a strong
season, that gains more interest
from students. Once there is
strong interest, you can have more
mandatory practices and shape
your team around those who attend,”
Burroughs said.
During the season, of the 22
players on the roster, roughly 20
would be at the practices. Burroughs
looks forward to having
the same amount of interest next
year.
“Our players have off ’till the
spring. While some will transfer
to another school for whatever
reason, others do stay. So I take
that and look towards next year in
a positive manner,” Burroughs
said.
As the team forms year after
year, there is one key to success
and interest: Scouting.
“After some success, other colleges
begin
to scout
your players.
That
i n t e r e s t
keeps talent
coming
in,” Burroughs
said
R i d e r
University
and Temple
University
are among
the Division
One
colleges scouting Bucks players.
There have also been many scouts
from Divisions Two and Three.
“Since we’ve started having our
players scouted, we’ve been able
to not only push our players
harder to improve on the field, but
in school as well,” Burroughs
said. “We’re now trying to show
our players what it will be like in
a major school.”
“Over my time as coach, we’ve
had four players recruited and
taken in,” Burroughs said. “We
give our players an opportunity to
be scouted. After that, it’s the student’s
responsibility to execute
moving to that school.”
Among the top players receiving
interest from colleges this year
is midfielder Timothy Drabyak.
He was the only player who was a
captain as a freshman this year.
“Tim is our centerpiece; he is
very important to our future,”
Burroughs said.
The other captains on the team
were goalie Christopher Shaffer
and defenseman Samuel Fahnboto,
both sophomores.
“Samuel was an all-league
player, but he and Patrick
DiLiegro got injured during the
season,” Burroughs said. “However,
we had a freshman, George
Doenlen, step in and play really
well on defense.”
“Our captains really did well in
just keeping the team together,”
Burroughs said. “There were
freshmen nerves from the goalie
to the forwards. In the end, the
team was very levelheaded, and I
knew they could dominate the
other teams in the league.”