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Experienced returners in goal and on the back line will also be a key

By Dan Kibler

Jeffrey Williams’ soccer teams at West Forsyth have won 80% of their matches over the past four seasons, along with three Central Piedmont 4A championships, so a certain level of success is — while maybe not automatically expected — certainly within the realm of possibilities.
Possibilities are something Williams sees when he looks at his 2022 roster. If he can find a few offensive pieces, his team could be headed for the playoffs for the eighth consecutive season.
“We should be solid — we lost a lot of important pieces — but (a championship) is definitely attainable,” said Williams, who has a 100-43-15 record in seven seasons at West. “We’re not proven yet, but we’ll hopefully contend. The first week, I won’t know exactly how we’ll play, but we’ll see where we are after next month.”
Where they’ll likely be is playing a lot of low-scoring games, unless one of his young attack players does some serious Ronaldo imitations. That’s because the Titans have an extremely experienced defensive side. Last season, on the way to a 20-4 record — they lost in the second round of the Class 4-A state playoffs — West allowed only 22 goals and recorded 12 shutouts.
“I’d rather win 1-0 than 4-3,” said Williams, who has two experienced goalkeepers and three returning starters on the back line. “Our defense is well-seasoned. We have all but one (starter) returning from last year. That will be one of our strengths.”
Junior Grant Tally and senior Logan Barker split time in goal for the Titans last season. Williams feels confident that not many opponents will be as good as his pair in net.
“Both of them have played for us since they were freshmen, and both of them have played in playoff games,” he said.
West could be even stronger right in front of Tally and Barker, with three of four backs returning.
“We are returning our two center backs, Nolan Terlecki and Andrew Green, both juniors,” Williams said. “Both played almost the whole game, every game, last year. We’ve got a senior, Erick Avila, who is an outstanding outside back. We may play him a little more on attack if we need to score more goals.”
In addition to his great varsity team from a year ago, Williams has a bunch of young talent to lean on, some from the varsity and some from a very strong junior varsity team.
“We graduated three forwards, but we had three attack players on the varsity last year as freshmen; now they’re sophomores — Abiel Lopez, Haeden Paschold and Joshua Medel,” he said. “I’m expecting them to carry the load. Those three play together very well; they’re comfortable with each other.
“Our other attack player will be Josh Brown, a senior. He can play a lot of different positions — attack, back or midfield. We’ll just try and figure out where he should play on this team. We had our two starting midfielders graduate. Josh Medel, Josh Brown and some other guys will get a lot of opportunities.”
Williams expects to use a couple of preseason scrimmages and a handful of non-conference games early on West’s schedule to test different combinations of midfielders and forwards before the CPC opener on Sept. 7.
“We’ll be very young; we’ll probably only start three of four seniors, and we’ll have a lot of room for growth. We’ll figure out how good we are,” he said.

Boys Soccer Schedule

• Aug. 15 at Mooresville 7 p.m. (Crossroads Cup)
• Aug. 17 vs. Home Cox Mill 7 p.m. (Crossroads Cup)
• Aug. 20 at TBD 7 p.m. (Crossroads Cup at Old Davie HS)
• Aug. 24 vs. NW Guilford 6:30 p.m.
• Aug. 26 at Chapel Hill 4 p.m. (Kickoff Classic, Field 2, Middle Creek Park)
• Aug. 27 at Green Level 9 a.m. (Kickoff Classic, Field 6, Wake Med Park)
• Aug. 30 at Ledford 7 p.m.
• Sept. 1 vs. Watauga 6:30
• Sept. 7 at Mount Tabor 7 p.m.
• Sept. 9 vs. Lake Norman 7 p.m. (Friday Night Futbol)
• Sept. 12 vs. Parkland 7 p.m.
• Sept. 14 at  Glenn 7 p.m.
• Sept. 19 at Reagan 7 p.m.
• Sept. 21 vs. Davie 7 p.m.
• Sept. 26 vs. Reynolds 7 p.m.
• Sept. 28 at East Forsyth 7 p.m. (at Cash Elementary)
• Oct. 5 vs. Mount Tabor 7 p.m.
• Oct. 10 at Parkland 7 p.m. (at Deaton-Thompson Stadium)
• Oct. 12 vs. Glenn 7 p.m.
• Oct. 17 vs. Reagan 7 p.m.
• Oct. 19 vs. Davie 7 p.m.
• Oct. 24 vs. Reynolds 7 p.m. (at Bolton Field)
• Oct. 26 vs. East Forsyth 7 p.m.

Boys Soccer Roster

Number/Player/Position/Grade

1 — Matthew Barghout GK 11
2 — Haegan Paschold M/F 10
3 — Ethan Barghout MF 9
4 — Mason Nichols D/M 12
5 — Nolan Terlecki D/M 11
6 — Ethan Isaman MF 11
7 — Josh Medel MF/F 10
8 — Evan Hulme M/F 12
9 — Abiel Lopez MF/F 10
10 — Erick Avila D/M/F 12
11 — Damien Cisneros D/M/F 12
12 — Lucas Isaman MF 11
13 — Josh Brown D/M/F 12
14 — Alexis Pelaez M/F 11
15 — Tanner Fiorani MF 11
16 — Truman Sokphorn M/F 11
17 — Andy Hernandez D/M/F 11
18 — Yannic Kimmel D 12
19 — Diego Casteneda D/F 9
20 — Hayden Wolverton D/M/F 11
21 — Andrew Green D 11
22 — Logan Barker GK 12

Coaches
Head Coach: Jeffrey Williams
Assistant Coaches: Brent Maratta, Debra Troxell, Chris Mitchell