BOONE, N.C. — One week into preseason practices and after the annual Black and Gold Scrimmage, the Appalachian State men's soccer team will play its first opponents of the 2016 season this week.
The Mountaineers will play former Southern Conference rival Wofford on Tuesday, Aug. 16 at 6 p.m. before going on the road for their contest with High Point on Saturday, Aug. 20 at 7 p.m.
Trapping the Terriers
Last season, the Terriers finished 9-7-2 (4-5-1 SoCon), good for fifth overall in the league. After losing five student-athletes to graduation, Wofford will be returning six starters this year who were a part of the Terriers finishing third in the SoCon in points (94) and second in goals (36) and goals per game (2.00/game).
Individually for Wofford, the team lost Nester Jaramill, Will Puckett and Jonathan Dean, three of the Terriers' leading offensive pieces. The team this year will look heavily to returner Matthew Aurednik, who finished tied for first on the team in goals (six). Where Wofford will really need to look for help this season is on the assist side of the stat sheet. With the loss of Jonathan Dean, the team lost its playmaker and will possibly look to its 12 newcomers to help fill that void.
Spending the majority of the time in the net for the Terriers last season was Garrett Closs. In his 11 matches, he had 43 saves and only allowed 18 goals. Returning for his senior year, Appalachian will be facing off against a veteran keeper in the exhibition.
The Mountaineers have faced off with Wofford 19 times. Appalachian holds the advantage in the overall record ,16-2-1, with the last game between the two coming in 2013 in an offensive duel that ended in an App State 3-2 win.
Pouncing on the Panthers
The High Point Panthers are an on the cusp team coming off an 8-6-7 season (3-3-3 Big South). The Panthers, who were picked second in the Big South preseason coaches poll, return several key members of a program that has finished eight-straight seasons above .500. Despite finishing sixth in the conference, High Point put together the pieces at the right time, making it all the way to the Big South Championship game, where they fell to Radford.
Returning to help lead the Panthers are Ebe Kudolo, Johnny Fenwick and Renato Punyed. Coming off an all-freshman selection, Rashid Tetteh is also returning to help the team that set a program record with their goals-against average (0.83) make their mark on the defensive end of the pitch.
The Panthers will be looking to replace their sole keeper in the net, Kody Palmer. Palmer played in all 21 matches for the team, logging almost 2,100 minutes on the year. He finished with 90 saves and only 19 goals allowed off 271 shots faced to go along with eight shutouts.
As a team, High Point led the Big South in shots (345, 16.43/game) and was second in the league in goals-against average. The Panthers also finished third on the year in shutouts with the eight from Palmer.
The Mountaineers have faced High Point 17 times in program history, owning a 14-3-0 record against the Panthers. This is the first time since 2008 that the two teams have faced off. App State lost 1-2 in the match.
Quotes and Notes
The Mountaineers have only played 12 teams more than Wofford or High Point (The Citadel, Clemson, Davidson, Furman, Georgia Southern, Marshall, UNC Asheville, UNCG, South Carolina, VMI, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest) ... 15 Mountaineers hail from Appalachian's home state of North Carolina, while five come from outside the U.S. (Jeremy Tshongo - Western Australia; Raheem Somersall - Basseterre, St. Kitts; Jordan Melia - Bolton, England; Thibaut Arpinon - Nimes, France; Felix Kollmannthaler - Frankfurt, Germany) ... App State welcomes 13 newcomers this season, with eight of them being freshmen and the other five being transfers ... head coach Jason O'Keefe is entering his first season at the helm of the program ... O'Keefe previously was an assistant coach at North Carolina ... Appalachian's regular season opener is at 7 p.m. on Aug. 20 at Cincinnati ... the Mountaineers face a five-match road trip to open up the 2016 season before returning for their home opener against USC Upstate on Sept. 13 at 7 p.m.
