Season Outlook

Sebastian Missura

The Wittenberg men's soccer team has high hopes that 2005 is the year that it returns to a position of national prominence and breaks into the top of the rugged North Coast Athletic Conference.

Buoying such hopes is the return of 12 letterwinners, including nine starters, from a 2004 team that finished 7-11 overall and 4-5 in the NCAC, good for a sixth-place finish. The Tigers also expect a large freshman class with several accomplished elite club players to both provide significant depth and in many cases compete for starting spots.

Offensively, the Tigers return several of their top scorers, led by two-time second-team All-NCAC honoree Sebastian Missura (Quito, Ecuador/American School), a junior midfielder who has led the team in scoring each of the last two years. Surrounding him again figure to be 2004 starting forwards Joe Zeller (Springfield, Ohio/North), a sophomore, and Jason Sucher (Louisville, Ky./duPont Manual), a junior. Sucher was among several players to finish the 2004 season with four points after an injury-riddled freshman campaign and Zeller, who split his season between offense and defense, finished with one goal and one assist.

In the midfield, junior Eduardo Missura (Quito, Ecuador/American School), who had four points in 2004, and senior Brian Mutton (Fort Wayne, Ind./Canterbury), who finished with a goal and an assist a year ago, are also returning starters.

Defensively, plenty of experience and talent returns, led by junior goalkeeperAdam Horrocks (Delaware, Ohio/Hayes), who split time in net in 2004 after starting a majority of the games as a freshman. He is protected by three returning starters in the defensive backfield: junior Nick Hauff (Delaware, Ohio/Hayes), junior Kenny Proops (Charleston, W.Va./Catholic) and junior Ian Acker (Worthington, Ohio/Thomas Worthington).