Men's Soccer Gets Fall 2021 Season Started

The College of Southern Maryland men's soccer team opened their fall 2021 season on August 31 when they faced the Howard Community College Dragons.

The Hawks lost 8-2, but responded with a 1-0 win over the Anne Arundel Community College Riverhawks on September 2.

It was a shortened offseason for the program, as their fall 2020 schedule was pushed to the spring 2021 semester due to coronavirus. Their last game of spring 2021 came on May 12, a 5-1 loss to Frederick Community College that gave CSM a 2-8 record for the season.

Head coach Gary Knight said the biggest challenge that his team will face from having a quick offseason turnaround will be putting last season behind them and focusing on this season.

"I have told them numerous times that this is a completely different team than last spring," Knight said. "Our team is more physical, more possessive with the ball, and communicates 100 percent better than last year."

Nine players are returning from last year's squad, including All-Maryland JUCO Honorable Mention Thomas Larsen. Oscar Perez, Lorenzo Cappa, Cole Trani, Richard Miller, Christopher Moreno, and Talla Jagne are back with the Hawks for their second years, while Yohan Ouedraogo and Jawaun Butler will be suiting up for their third seasons with CSM.

Knight said he will also be looking for big things from newcomers Jakai Washington, Hassan Turay, and Estid Reedy.

"My outlook for this season is simple - to start to build a strong men's soccer program here at CSM, and to represent our school well when facing our opponent schools," Knight said. "Our main goal for this season is to do much better than we did last season and to be able to make it into the Region XX playoffs."