As a whole, the Shawnee State men's soccer program is quite talented up and down the roster at every position.
However, when new faces are inserted into the rotation, it does take time to a unit to gel.
On Thursday evening, the Shawnee State Bears' men's soccer program hopes to give fans what they want and desire as Shawnee State (0-1) faces off against the Concordia (Mich.) men's soccer program (0-2) in a nonconference matchup that will be the first-ever between the two units.
For Goodson, the opportunity for 16 of his 34 players to experience the home environment for the first time excites him greatly.
"It is always great to play at home in front of our fans," Goodson said. "Hopefully, we will have a great crowd, and the team will feed off of their energy."
From a statistics standpoint, Concordia brings back several strong threats, two in particular being senior Anthony Tucker and Spencer Ward. The former led the team in 2018 with six goals and three assists, while the latter, a senior goalkeeper, saved 97 shots while only allowing 27 goals in all for a 1.54 goals-against-average. The performances of the pair will make limiting mistakes paramount for Shawnee State.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, Kevin de Lange looks to be out to yet another strong start. The sophomore, who led SSU with 14 goals and six assists en route to Mid-South Conference Freshman of the Year honors, scored the team's only goal in a 2-1 loss to Indiana University-East and put three of his four shots on goal. Mark de Graaf and Joao Toledo were also aggressive offensively, with de Graaf placing three of his seven shots on goal against IU-East and Toledo taking a pair as well.
Defensively, Kade Tomlinson will look to improve on an effort where the sophomore saved four of the six shots that he faced against IU-East. Tomlinson made 132 saves in 18 games last season en route to a .763 save percentage.
"Hopefully, we can eliminate mistakes we made in our first match, and capitalize on the opportunities that we get," Goodson said. "It is nice to have depth on the team to where we can make substitutions and not see any decline in play."
Regardless of how the chips fall for Shawnee State, Goodson wants to see progress -- because it is that progress that could make the Bears a dangerous out in Mid-South Conference competition as well as postseason play.
"What I want to see out of the team is improvement from our first match," Goodson said. "We need to make fewer mistakes, take care of the ball in possession, and score when we have opportunities."
