Brooklyn men's soccer season preview
After seven seasons of playing its home games off campus, the
Brooklyn College Men's Soccer team will once again call BC home in
2012. Brooklyn last played an on-campus home game during the 2004
season, a 3-0 loss against the City College of New York (CCNY) on
October 23, 2004.
The Bulldogs will christen their new field, ending a nearly eight
year hiatus, on September 13, 2012, when Brooklyn will entertain
borough rival St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) under the lights at
7:00 pm.
The 2012 BC Bulldogs will look to bounce back from a disappointing
2011 season that saw the squad miss out on the City University of
New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC)/Applebee's Championships.
Entering his fourth season at the helm of the BC Men's Soccer
program, Head Coach Rawle
Hensford will rely on key returners, as well as a slew of
newcomers to help guide Brooklyn back to the CUNYAC Championships
for the first time since 2009.
The backbone for Brooklyn will once again be junior goalkeeper
Stamatis
Boundouris, who has been a mainstay in between the pipes
for BC over the past two seasons. In 2011, Boundouris started in 14
of the 15 games played on the year and finished the season ranked
29th in all of Division III last year in saves per game
with 6.67. Within the CUNYAC, Boundouris ranked third in saves per
game and fourth in total saves.
Along with Boundouris, junior Peter
Vavalle will look to anchor the BC defense once again
this season. Vavalle started in all 14 games he appeared in during
his first campaign with BC a year ago.
On the offensive side of the ball, junior Pajtim
Gjonbalaj will look to once again provide scoring
opportunities for the Bulldogs. Gjonbalaj has been among the team's
top scorers the past two seasons.
To go with his returning veterans, Coach Hensford will welcome a
number of newcomers, including Dmitry
Prokofyev, Taras
Frankivskyy and Hassan
Wehbeh to all make an immediate impact on the 2012 BC
Men's Soccer team.
Prokofyev comes to BC after playing one season at both Borough of
Manhattan Community College and Dowling College, an NCAA Division
II member of the East Coast Conference (ECC). While at Dowling,
Prokofyev appeared in 12 games while making three starts, helping
lead the team to the 2010 ECC Championship, as well as to the
semifinals of the NCAA Division II Tournament.
Frankivskyy comes to BC by way of Kingsborough Community College,
where he played two seasons for the Wave. In 2010, Frankivskyy
tallied two goals and four assists in nine games played and in 2011
he recorded two goals and an assist in nine games played.
Frankivskyy was named to the 2011 CUNYAC Community College All-Star
Team as a Defender.
Wehbeh played high school soccer at Pakistan International School
of Damascus (PISOD) in Damascus, Syria. While at PISOD, Wehbeh was
named "Best Midfielder of the Year" and helped lead the team to the
league championship.
"We have added more depth to the team this season and I expect us
to make a strong showing in the conference," said Coach
Hensford.
The BC Men's Soccer team will kick-off its 2012 season on Sunday,
September 2nd against New York University. The match
will be held at Gaelic Park in Riverdale, NY with a start time of
8:00 pm. Live stats will be available for the match via
http://sidearmstats.com/nyu/msoc/scoreboard.aspx
