After losing six key contributors from last season, the North Carolina men’s soccer team continued to find ways to score in its second preseason tune-up, posting a 2-1 victory against Michigan State Thursday night in Fort Wayne, Ind.
Junior transfer Tyler Engel , who played last season at Southern Methodist, scored his first goal in Tar Heel blue in the 38th minute, and sophomore Raby George added another goal in the second half to give UNC a 2-0 lead. Michigan State scored its lone goal with six minutes left, but couldn’t find an equalizer in the game’s waning minutes.
The players who accounted for 16 of UNC’s 33 goals in 2012 are not on this year’s team, so contributions from new faces like Engel will be crucial in rebuilding an offensive attack that lost three forwards who saw significant playing time in 2012.
“We’ll be starting further ahead on the defense than we are on the offense,” coach Carlos Somoano said of his defensive back line which returns three starters .
The Tar Heels enter 2013 without forwards Martin Murphy, Cameron Brown and Danny Garcia , but did retain senior Andy Craven, who led the Tar Heel in goals, with six, last season. UNC also returns senior forward Rob Lovejoy, who scored five goals after missing the first half of 2012 due to injury.
Garcia, a freshman last season, was signed by FC Dallas this summer, and the Tar Heels also lost sophomore midfielder Mikey Lopez to Sporting Kansas City in the MLS Draft.
“We’re just having a lot of success with our team which is kind of creating our own problems,” Somoano said of UNC’s 2012 run to the NCAA quarterfinals . “When we have success, the guys get attention, and when guys get attention they turn pro.”
Somoano also has the unenviable task of replacing goalkeeper Scott Goodwin, who broke the record for career shutouts last season. Junior Brendan Moore and sophomore Sam Euler will be the top candidates when the coaching staff names a starter next week, Somoano said.
UNC continued to mix and match its lineups, as it did in Saturday’s 3-0 exhibition win against Elon, but the team will look to find a more consistent lineup in its last exhibition match against Indiana on Sunday. UNC opens its regular season Aug. 30 at home against Monmouth.
