Head coach – John Cari (17th year, 270-78-20)
Assistants – Kyle Grim, Matt Conway, Scot Kocis
Last year – 14-2 overall; District XI Champs, PIAA Semifinalist
Losses to graduation – F Hudson Peck (12g/7a, 1st Team Lehigh Div), MF Pat Walsh (8g/1a, 1st Team Lehigh Div), MF Alex Toto (7g/3a, 1st Team Lehigh Div), MF Josh Whalen (3g/3a), F Josh Miller (2g/3a), D Jacob Hain (2g/2a), MF Nate Romig (2g/1a), GK Chris Buck
Returnees – Sr. F Holden Brown, Sr. Def John Hanvey (2nd Team Lehigh Div), Sr. Def Jaeden Amato (1st Team Lehigh Div), Sr. Def Ryan Santos, Sr. Gk Ty Bleiler, Sr. MF Carlos Morales, Sr. MF Jack Lawrence, Sr, F Logan Mains, Soph. F Ryan Kiernan, Sr. F Owen Kocis, Sr. MF Bryan Flor, Jr. GK Max McGrath
Newcomers – Jr. Def. Blaise Verrastro, Jr. Def. Aivan Delgado, Soph. MF Eli Pennell, Soph. MF Adam Grigoruk, Jr. F Nick Stephan, Jr. MF Ryan Latchford, Sr. MF Abraham Hernandez
First game – September 8 @ Northampton, 7 pm
Follow team on social media: (Twitter) @EmmSoccer, @Emmaussports; (Facebook) Emmaus boys soccer
EPC challengers: Freedom, Parkland, Whitehall, Nazareth, CCHS
Coach Cari:
On replacing 92% of his offense: “We’re just trying to figure out what’s the right mix of kids. We have a lot kids who can do things, it’s just a matter of finding who works well with one another and how how does that dynamic work together.”
On his defense unit – “As a whole it’s one of my best. This is a really solid group. We lived on our defense last year and we’re bringing all those guys back. It’s our strength and I don’t see any let up. In goal (Ty) Bleiler has some Division 1 interest from some Atlantic 10 schools and his club resume is outstanding. Then we have a kid like (Max) McGrath who could pretty much start anywhere else in this conference. He’s outstanding and very athletic and a natural leader.”
On continuing the program’s dominance: “We’ve proven to be the gold standard in boys soccer in the area and that’s what we rise to. We want to say ‘hey come take us down’ and not that we are going to be chasing. We’ve been to the District XI final 10 consecutive years and won five of those. We are the gold standard.”