Smithtown West’s challenge will be putting the pieces together

With a talented sophomore class, the Smithtown West boys’ soccer team will rely more heavily on its underclassmen this season to fill the shoes of the 12 seniors lost to graduation.

“I think the biggest challenge for the boys is that we’re very talented, we just have our talents spread out through different grade levels,” 14-year head coach Tom Lips said. “We have really good soccer players, we just have to figure it all out. It’s very new right now.”

Last year, the Bulls made it to the Suffolk County semifinals after winning the League III title for the third consecutive season. Although the coach and his teammates thought the 5-2-1 team had the potential to go father, Lips thinks fatigue played a factor.

“It’s a lot of soccer games in a short period of time, so when we entered the playoffs I felt the kids ran out of gas a little bit,” he said. “It was generally the same lineup and the same group basically played every game and most of the minutes, and that can build up after a while.”

Which is why the Bulls are building on their athleticism. Despite being consistent over the last few years, finishing the 2014-15 season with a 14-2 record, and the 2013-14 season at 18-1-1, the extra push to continue a strong record will help the Bulls go deeper into the postseason.

“We had a really good session [on Monday] and another on Saturday,” three-year starter and retuning goalkeeper Aaron Siegel said of practices so far, despite lacking in leadership early on. “In my three years on varsity it was the first time we had about 25 of the 28 kids run the two mile in under 14 minutes, and we had a bunch of kids run it in under 13 minutes; we look very fit and very strong coming into the season.”

The senior also noted that a lot of the sophomore additions bring size and skill to the team.

“A lot of them are physically big or athletic, but a lot of them are also pretty soccer-smart,” he said. “They know what to do with the ball — they know how to play. They don’t just try to run into people, they actually move the ball and get it going.”

Leading the team this season, will be senior captains Reed Massaro and Brandon Erny.

Of Massaro, a three-year returner, Lips said the defenseman has made some great strides over the last two years, and expects him to have his best year. For Erny, a three-year starter, Lips said he’ll be used as a utility player, moving to wherever the team needs him most in a given game.

“He’s talented enough to play everywhere,” the head coach said.

Also returning to the team is Andrew McDonnell, former captain Matt McDonnell’s younger brother. He’ll be a junior this season, and Lips said he’s coming through the program well.

“He did a nice job last year before he got hurt and then we lost him in the playoff run, which was impactful, because things were pretty solid with him in the middle of the field,” he said. “But I expect Andrew to have a very, very good year at midfield and possibly forward.”

Senior midfielder Anthony Gibbons will also be looked to for his experience and talents.

Gibbons thinks that the younger athletes bring new energy to the team and said that it didn’t take long for the new group to begin to gel, but Lips thinks that his three-year returner has an energy all his own.

“Gibbons has high energy and we hope he makes some tremendous strides,” Lips said. “He had a wonderful season last year and he could be more the physical and emotional leader of the team. I think he’s going to make a great impact.”

Being physically fit to have an edge on other teams, the Bulls believe stamina wont be an issue as the team pushes for a fourth consecutive League III title.

Smithtown West will host Ward Melville on Sept. 2 in a nonleague game, and will travel to Smithtown East on Sept. 7 for a League III matchup against its crosstown rival.

“We have to get tactically ready for school-ball season because it’s a more physical, more direct game, and we have to keep drilling that into the young kids and keep getting more fit, because that’s really going to help us in the long run,” Siegel said. “ This year I don’t think there’s going to any let off. Ending my high school career never losing that League III title would be a big thing for us to keep our name — we want to maintain the legacy of the school. I think for the fourth straight year, the league title will be coming back to Smithtown West.”