North Allegheny boys soccer focused on finishing chances

By: Chris Harlan
Thursday, September 10, 2020 | 10:09 PM

In soccer coach Bobby Vosmaer’s view, his North Allegheny boys need to finish their scoring chances to keep their season from ending early again.

That’s an added emphasis.

“Just capitalize on our chances,” he said. “We always can create chances. But we’re not always putting them away. That’s the one thing we’re focusing on.”

Need proof? Vosmaer points to the team’s first-round loss in last year’s WPIAL playoffs.

“That still haunts me,” he said. “We lost 2-0. They had three shots on goal. We had about 25 shots on goal and couldn’t even come close.”

But there’s reason for hope.

As Vosmaer enters his 16th season as coach, he fields a team whose strength should be up front. Leading scorer Matt Van Kirk (eight goals) graduated, but Vosmaer has a foursome of forwards who can provide a strong attack.

Junior Evan Anderson and seniors Philip Iozzi, Kensley Owens and Evan Cole combined for 12 of the team’s 54 goals last season. Anderson ranked second with seven, Owens scored four and Iozzi had one.

“I’ve got some good midfielders, and on a good day, I’ve got some very good forwards,” Vosmaer said.

North Allegheny returns few full-time starters, but Vosmaer does have 15 seniors back from a team that went 11-7-1. There’s also a talented junior class just behind them with eight guys who’ll play.

Along with Anderson, those juniors include midfielder Brandon Marzula and midfield/defender Matt Mihm. Leading the senior class are keepers Mikkel Hindsbo and Regan Racicot, midfield/defenders Jonathan Swann and Zoha Peterson, and defender Jacob Gardner.

The Tigers won consecutive WPIAL titles in 2016 and ’17, but endured first-round exits in 2018 and ’19. Vosmaer is cautiously optimistic this year’s group is more like those championship teams.

“I very quietly think this group — because of the juniors I have — can make a push again,” he said. “For sure we should be in the playoffs, and I’m looking hopefully at winning the section, if that’s possible.”

The Tigers finished fourth in Section 1-4A behind Seneca Valley, Fox Chapel and Butler. Those teams return along with North Hills, Pine-Richland and Shaler. Seneca Valley remains NA’s top rival, but a new coach makes Pine-Richland a dark horse, Vosmaer said.

In this section, teams need to be able to score. Fox Chapel had 78 goals last season, and Seneca Valley scored 55.

“Those moments define whether they’re going to be in there or not,” Vosmaer said. “When we play Seneca, you’d better take your chances, because they always come up with some very good players who can do the job.”

Finishing those scoring chances is North Allegheny’s focus now, but that’s not how the summer started. The first weeks of workouts were about conditioning after getting a late start. School buildings were closed in the spring to prevent coronavirus spread, and teams didn’t resume workouts until July.

“Usually, I already have them working out in early or middle of June,” Vosmaer said. “It was at least a month delayed.”

He was curious about their physical conditioning after a long lockdown but was pleased to see they’d continued training on their own.

“I’m fortunate that these guys had done something,” Vosmaer said. “You could tell.”

And after weeks of working out alone, his guys were eager to resume team practices.

“The kids were dying to get out of the house and run, so I really didn’t have to push them hard to go at it,” Vosmaer said. “If I tell them we have to run for three hours straight, they would run for three hours, just to be able to be together again.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: North Allegheny