2020-21 UD Men's Soccer Season Preview
IRVING, Texas – The University of Dallas men's soccer team is geared up to take the field this spring after COVID-19 cancelled the traditional fall season in 2020. The Crusaders will play all eight Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) schools once with the meetings happening weekly mostly on Saturdays. The top eight schools in the standings will qualify for the SCAC Tournament on March 23-25 at Centenary College.
As a reminder, the University of Dallas is not permitting any spectators at any home athletic events. Games will be viewable for free on College TV Ticket.
Dallas kicks off its campaign on Thursday, February 25 against Texas Lutheran University in a match rescheduled from last Saturday that was postponed due to the winter storms. Start time is set at 4 p.m. The Crusaders their regularly scheduled match on Saturday at home versus Schreiner University at 12 p.m.
Dallas is on the road three weekends out of four in March with Centenary (Mar. 6), St. Thomas (Mar. 14), and Austin College (Mar. 27) on the docket. The lone home match is on the 20th with Trinity University.
Easter weekend, the Crusaders are at Colorado College and then they wrap up the regular season at home against Southwestern University.
The Crusaders are coming off a 5-11-1 season that included a 3-5-1 SCAC record. UD fell 1-0 with a late goal being the difference against host school Trinity University. Dallas earned a trip to the tournament in a must-win road game at Schreiner University and earned the ticket with a 3-1 victory thanks to three second half goals.
Dallas is led by 18th year head coach David Hoffmann, who holds a 154-130-22 record. He holds the most wins in program history and also has the best career winning percentage .539. That mark is highlighted by the best career winning season in 2007 with a .921-clip. That same campaign Hoffmann guided UD to 17 wins, which is also a record.
The Crusaders are three years removed from competing in the SCAC Championship match in 2017 at Dallas. This year's senior class will be represented by those that competed in that match as just freshman. 10 players fall into this category including: Caleb Strange (Argyle, Texas), Chase Reynolds (Southlake, Texas), Cody Briggs (Houston, Texas), Nate Riddle (Millsboro, Del.), Tomas DePetris (Houston, Texas), Nat Kajiwara (Southlake, Texas), Nicholas Opsahl (Boerne, Texas), Jose Martinez (Tegucigalpa, Honduras), Joseph Christopherson (Swanton, Ohio), and Brady McNamara (San Antonio, Texas).
This group has some student-athletes well decorated headlined by Kajiwara earning SCAC Newcomer-of-the-Year in 2017. Reynolds and McNamara also have earned multiple SCAC All-Conference appearances. Reynolds has multiple All-Americans, while Kajiwara and McNamara have one apiece.
In addition to this experienced bunch, UD returns Jose Salinas-Arreola (Katy, Texas), Carlo Scarmardo (Copper Canyon, Texas), and Zachary Schierl (La Grange Park, Ill.) from last season.
16 newcomers will be vying for playing time as well. One figures to be goalkeeper Goncalo Pernas (Lisbon, Portugal) who is one-of-two keepers on the roster. Strange started 13 matches last year and played the bulk of minutes (1,137) between the posts.
Dallas will be without its top two scorers from a season ago in Hunter Haugland and Chima Ogueri who combined for 14 goals. Reynolds returns as the top scorer with four goals and was the leader in assists with that same number.
On Wednesday, the SCAC announced the men's soccer preseason coaches' poll. Dallas was selected sixth with 30 points. Thursday's opponent, TLU was picked second with 69 points and shared four first place votes with Trinity University. Saturday's foe Schreiner was picked ninth with 11 points. Colorado College gained the remaining first place vote and is third. University of St. Thomas and Southwestern University are respectively ahead of UD. Austin College and Centenary follow the Crusaders with Schreiner rounding the bottom out.