COLLEGE MEN’S SOCCER: Oakland looking to climb back to summit of Horizon League
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
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ROCHESTER HILLS — For a program that boasts a lot of history, the recipe for success hasn’t changed over the years when it comes to the men’s soccer program at Oakland University.
Redshirt junior midfielder Evan Sawula is one of several returnees back for Oakland University, which hopes to contend in the Horizon League this season. All Photos / Amanda Thick, Amanda Leigh Photography
“It hasn’t changed, and I think the two goals are kind of simultaneous in that we always want to win the conference tournament and reach the NCAAs,” admitted Oakland head coach Eric Pogue, who took over before the 2009 season after serving as an assistant to Gary Parsons for seven campaigns. “True, you always want to win the regular season, too, or get one of the top two seeds for the tournament and get that first-round bye. But everyone understands that if you peak at the right time and win the (conference) tournament, you’re in the NCAA tournament.”
Prior to 1998-99, Oakland was down in NCAA Division II and was a perennial national powerhouse. Two decades in Division I and OU has reached the NCAA Tournament eight times in two decades. In many of those NCAA tournament appearances, Oakland lacked star power but fielded deep and balanced squads.
“When we won both the (conference) tournament and regular season in 2014 and beat Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and in 2015 when we won the (conference) tournament, I don’t think we had a superstar, someone that would score 15 goals. But we had great balance and teams couldn’t key (defensively) on just one player,” said Pogue. “I think this team will be similar.”
Oakland finished a respectable 9-7-3 overall last season and finished third in the final Horizon League regular season standings. As the No. 3 seed of the league tournament, Oakland dropped a 1-0 heartbreaker to Milwaukee in the opening round despite an 11-5 shots edge and controlling play throughout much of the game.
The good news is there are seven returning full-time starters and one player that started seven games early last season before departing to injury. On top of that, the 26-man roster includes six other players that were key reserves or part-time starters for most of last year and 11 newcomers (10 freshmen and one eligible transfer) on the roster. Plus, there are two redshirt freshmen who are also vying for playing time.
Will Oakland have the right pieces of the puzzle to contend in the nine-school Horizon League, where the recently released coaches poll has the Golden Grizzlies (51 points) picked to finish fourth behind defending regular season champion Wright State (74 points), two-time defending tournament champ Illinois-Chicago (69) and Green Bay (52). Milwaukee (49), Northern Kentucky (46), IUPUI (26), Cleveland State (25) and Detroit Mercy (13) rounded out the preseason poll.
“I think we can be up there and challenge in our league,” offered Pogue. “We do have a lot of experience on the team — guys that played some valuable (minutes) for us last season. And I’m excited to see where our newcomers fit into the mix.”
OU played two exhibition matches in August, facing Big East member Butler and NCAA Division II powerhouse Saginaw Valley State and came away with a 1-1 mark in those contests. Pogue had a chance to go deep into the well and play a wide variety of players in hopes of generating the right combination in the rotation and developing some much-needed depth for a long season.
Oakland lost nine total players for various reasons, including four to graduation, and a few to transfer. The biggest loss was forward Nebojsa ‘Nash’ Popovic (Rochester High/Vardar Academy), who was an All-Horizon League Second Team pick and led the team with six goals and seven assists (19 points). Popovic still had one year left of eligibility but opted in May to transfer to the University of Michigan to finish his collegiate career.
Also gone are midfielder Jimmy Todd (Clarkston/Vardar Academy), defender Neal Higgins, also a second-team all-league honoree, and defender Alfa Barry from the starting lineup.
There is still an abundance of returning talent on the Oakland side.
Redshirt junior Sullivan Lauderdale is back in goal after posting a 9-7-2 record with 18 starts and a respectable 1.40 goals-against-average last season. His understudy will again be senior Liam McQueenie (Unionville, Ont., Crothers Secondary), who played in a couple matches last season.
Sophomore Luke Morrell (Plainwell) and senior Elliott Bentley (Oakham, Eng., Tresham) return to the back line after starting most of the matches last season. Morrell was one of the state’s top high school prospects in 2017 and made the Horizon League All-Freshman Team last season after finishing second on the team in both goals (4) and total points (8).
Senior D AJ Shaw (Rochester Adams/Vardar Academy) and redshirt sophomore D/F Napoleon Outlaw (Okemos/Michigan Wolves Academy) both played minutes last season as either starters or reserves and should receive plenty of minutes this season. The versatile Outlaw also made the All-Freshman Team last season.
Another defender that should bid for minutes is senior Adam Giorgio (Woodbridge, Ont., Crothers Secondary), who started two games as a junior.
Senior Spencer Nolff (Grand Blanc) and juniors Noah Jensen (Courtice, Ont., Holy Trinity), Dylan Borzak (Detroit Western/Schoolcraft College) and Evan Sawula (Thunder Bay, Ont., St. Patrick) all started most of last season and will help anchor an experienced midfield. Senior Corentin Diverres (Guidel, France/Alabama-Huntsville) started seven games in the midfield last season and contributed six total points before suffering a season-ending injury last September.
Junior sniper Charlie Braithwaite (Doncaster, England, Ridgewood) is a key transfer and started both preseason matches. Sophomore F Dawson Schrum (Sterling Heights Stevenson) was one of Michigan’s top prep players two years ago and made the All-State Dream Team. He’ll likely receive more minutes in the attack this year.
Of the talented freshmen class, versatile F/M Reid Sproat (Auburn, Ind., Leo) and D/M Adam McAleenan (Crossgar, Northern Ireland, Royal Belfast) both started the preseason opener against Butler. Forward Mikey Ketteman (Portage Central, Division 1 All-State First Team) and D Frank Jones (Rochdale, Eng., Tresham) also gained substantial minutes in exhibition matches.
Defenseman Alexis Pugh (Lawrenceville, Ga., Discovery), D/M Marco Navarro (Fort Wayne, Ind., Homstead), D Micah Sonnenberg (Brooklyn, Mich., Columbia Central), M Carson Debison-Larabie (Ajax, Ont., Notre Dame), F Auston Kranick (Murrysville, Penn., Franklin), and M/D Mitch Meldrum (New Baltimore Anchor Bay) are also on the roster.
Sonnenberg (Division 3 All-State First Team) is one of the all-time leading goal scorers in Michigan prep history, but will actually play in the backfield at the collegiate level. He had 71 goals as a prep senior last season and 172 for his four-year high school career.
A pair of redshirt freshmen also hope to vie for minutes, midfielders Cameron Wilde (Macomb Lutheran North/Vardar Academy) and Michael Teller (Lake Orion).
All of the players on the roster have accomplished resumes at the high school, club or U.S. Developmental Academy levels. More importantly, the unit gives the coaching staff plenty of options for a deep rotation and winning product.
“As coaches, we have some decisions to make and we are trying to find the right combination of players that will put us in position to compete,” said Pogue. “I do like what we have on our roster.”
The race for the summit of the Horizon League will be much more competitive this season and the room for error will be slim.
“I think that the league has great balance and there isn’t any one dominant team,” offered Pogue. “I think that on any given night any team can beat any team in our conference. It’s going to be an interesting season because teams are so even. We’ll have to be prepared to battle every night.”
OAKLAND D-I CHAMPIONSHIPS HISTORY
Since moving up to NCAA Division I in the late 1990s, Oakland has enjoyed its fair share of success in men’s soccer:
Regular Season Conference Titles — 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2014
Conference Tournament Championships — 2001, 2003, 2007, 2010, 2014, 2015
NCAA Division I Appearances — 2001, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2012, 2014, 2015
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