LOWELL SUN: Men's Soccer: 23 players, one positive vibe
By Lynn Worthy, Lowell Sun Staff

LOWELL -- Three times. Not one or two, but three.

Jhony Valencia and Jamie Wangia hooked up on the same corner kick play three times on Saturday. The result: a hat trick for Wangia, a Lowell resident by way of Kenya, and a 5-1 victory for the UMass Lowell men's soccer team against Stonehill.

That's how the River Hawks approach things. They just do what they do best and trust that, if everyone executes, the rest will take care of itself.

Thus far the approach has yielded an 11-2-2 record overall and 9-2-1 in the Northeast-10 Conference.

"I was laughing myself every time I went to take a corner," says Valencia, who set a UML single-game record with four assists. "Coach was like, 'Do the same thing' and I did the same thing and all of those three were goals."

Wangia and Valencia, a Lowell High grad, practice corners until they can almost do them in their sleep.

That's the thing head coach Ted Priestly loves most about his team. Whey they're on, passing is elevated to an art form.

Speed and the "circulation of the ball" have been key to their success, according to Priestly. Everything flows from there.

"When you get talented players out there, you just hope that it doesn't turn into a highlight show where guys are just trying to show their 'YouTube' moves and trying to be Ronaldinho out there," he says.

The River Hawks are first in the NE-10 in total points, points per game, and assists. Matias Pietropinto and Valencia are first and second in the conference in assists, respectively.

UML is also the hardest team to score against in the conference, leading the NE-10 with the lowest goals against (total) and goals against average. They've recorded seven shutouts in 15 games.

It's almost scary to think that this is young team.

Midfielder Edens Chery is the only senior. Fifteen of the 23 players on the roster are sophomores or freshmen. Unfortunately for opponents, they're all communicating on an entirely different level than they did last season.

Valencia says he can feel the difference in the way the team spends time together off the field. The best term is "united," according to the sophomore.

"I think last year we were very hard to beat, but we didn't do the little things that teams that know each other are able to do sometimes," Priestly says. "Whether it's combinations or finishing or things like that. This year the familiarity has helped, and the lessons from last year in terms of little things we didn't do are things that we are doing this year."

They lost three seniors from a team that finished 7-4-6, 5-3-5 in the NE-10 last year, but they did add a crop of talented newcomers like Matt Dubois (transfer from Merrimack), Jose Esteves (transfer from Massasoit CC) and freshman Evan Spann out of Acton-Boxboro.

Dubois, currently fourth in the NE-10 in total points, attended Dracut High and then played his senior year of high school at IMG Academy in Florida, where he played against teams from across the country.

He transferred from Merrimack last year, looking for a change of scenery and to be closer to home.

Dubois, a junior athletic-wise, says his expectations have gone way up as the season has progressed.

UML started the year by beating Dowling College, the defending national champion and No. 1 ranked team in the nation.

"The competitiveness is very, very high," Dubois says. "I think everyone is fighting every day for spots and playing time. That has a lot to do with how we perform."

UML, ranked 14th nationally as of last week, has won eight of its last 10 games coming into this week and hasn't lost in four games. They're also unbeaten at home (6-0-2).

The River Hawks host Southern New Hampshire in the regular season finale tomorrow night at Cushing Field. They'll also host an opening-round game in the NE-10 Tournament on Sunday.

Sophomore captain and goalkeeper Ryan Richards has the utmost confidence in this team's capability as they come down the home stretch.

Just how good can the River Hawks be?

"When we're playing at our best I don't think there's any team that can possibly beat us," Richards says.