Burrell boys soccer looks to build winner

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, August 20, 2018 | 12:15 AM

Burrell boys soccer coach Andrew Kariotis said his young team played its best at the end of last season.

“We improved so much as the season went on,” he said. “We wish the season could’ve kept going.”

The Bucs, with 12 freshmen on a roster of 24, went 2-2 to close Section 2-2A play. They finished 5-11-1 overall and 3-8-1 in the section.

Burrell is still young, with 20 of the 27 on the roster either sophomores and freshmen, but Kariotis said last year’s experience should spark an improvement this fall.

“They’re all a little bit bigger, faster and stronger,” Kariotis said. “You can see that all have improved from last year. Our (Tri-City) team won an age-group tournament at Edinboro University in June, and a lot of the sophomores and freshmen were a big part of that.”

Kariotis said the team focused and worked a lot on possession in the offseason, and that continues in preseason practices.

“Against the other teams that might be bigger, stronger and faster, we want to keep the ball away from them and keep it at our feet instead of making it a 50-50 ball,” he said. “If we do that, I think we can play with anybody.

“Almost the whole team played a lot of (indoor) futsal in the offseason and worked on foot skills. With futsal, you have to play fast. You have to keep possession of the ball. You can’t just kick it down the field. That really helped us.”

The lineup, Kariotis said, is a work in progress as players compete for starting spots in advance of the season opener Sept. 1 at the Chartiers-Houston tournament.

Kariotis said he hopes to get a good look at the progress made in a scrimmage against St. Joseph at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Burrell.

“We’ve been talking about what formation we want to play and how everyone fits in,” Kariotis said. “It will be good to play another team and work on things at game speed. We want to see how we can get this group playing at its highest level.”

Sophomore Jake Guerrini played at a high level last year as the striker set a Burrell freshman scoring record with 16 of the team’s 36 goals. His earned all-section honors.

“We are building up this team,” Guerrini said. “We’re still young, but we have that experience. There are a lot of freshman coming in who can play.”

“We did a lot of weightlifting in the offseason, sometimes five days a week. Last year was a great learning experience with playing against the bigger, faster and stronger players. We realized what we needed to do to get better.”

Kariotis said Guerrini has worked hard on his on-field demeanor.

“He wasn’t used to some of the older and bigger kids and how they were physical with him,” Kariotis said. “Him keeping his composure will be big. He understands how much defenses are going to try and limit what he can do. He’s pretty exciting to watch. I know he’s going to score some big goals for us this year.”

Kariotis said the team needs more well-rounded scoring.

“We want to attack from the outside, so our outside mids are going to have to be involved in that,” he said. “We can’t rely on just one goal scorer. We also want to pull defenders away from Jake so he has better opportunities to score. That comes with developing more threats.”

That offensive push is expected to come from the efforts of returning players such as senior Danny McCarthy (central midfield) and sophomores Nicholas Kariotis (central midfield) and Ian Smola (forward).

Defensively, senior Jake Hughes will control the center back spot, with sophomores Ryan Wurzer and Josh Mueller back with experience.

The replacement at goalkeeper for the graduated Donovan Russell, a four-year starter and all-section performer, will come from a trio of players in seniors Eric Ryan and Farid Nafash and freshman Dom Ferra.

“It’s still pretty event at this point,” Kariotis said. “We need to see a little more from all three of them before we can make a final decision.”

Of the 27 players on the roster, four are seniors and three are juniors with 13 sophomores. Kariotis said he expects several of the seven freshmen to contribute to the varsity efforts this season.

Mt. Pleasant enters the season as the defending section champion. Deer Lakes was runner-up, and Freeport was third.

Shady Side Academy was fourth in the section, but it made a run and claimed the WPIAL 2A title and advanced to the PIAA quarterfinals.

“We expect an improvement from last year and are ready to challenge for a playoff spot,” Kariotis said.

Michael Love is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Michael at mlove@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MLove_Trib.

Tags: Burrell