soccer

Mustangs eyeing return to October ahead of 2024 season

Mustangs Athletics

August 12, 2024

As teams across the state head down the final stretch of the preseason, the McCracken County Mustangs are getting themselves set for what they hope to be another successful season.

Across the 2023 season, the Mustangs turned in a year to remember, finishing with a final record of 20-4-0. In the process, the Mustangs added to their ever-growing trophy collection, winning the First District with a 7-0 rout of Paducah Tilghman, before edging out a win in penalties over Marshall County to win the First Region tournament.

In the State Tournament, McCracken advanced to the semifinal round with wins over Madisonville-North Hopkins and DeSales, before their run came to an end at the hands of Lafayette. Now, heading into 2024, the Mustangs look to return to those heights, and take another step further.

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The new season for the Mustangs does not come without hurdles, however, as the roster is faced with heavy turnover, following the graduation of 10 seniors on the 2023 roster. Chief amongst the departures are the attacking trio of Johnny Stevens, Landon Grace, and Nehemiah Ivey, who acted as the Mustangs’ three top scorers, combining for a total of 38 goals across the year. While head coach Michael Wiersema expects returning faces to step up and replace this lost offensive production, the tenth-season coach preached the importance of his squad’s defense as the primary focus going forward.

“We’re going to have to see a lot of guys step up on the offensive end of things, those guys were important, what got us to the final four was our defense,” Wiersema said. “We were the best defensive team in the state [last year]. We have some work in that area to iron out first, and then we’ll start growing on the attacking end of things.”

Leading that defensive effort was senior Grayson Parrish. In the net, Parrish stopped 93 shots in their 26 games plays and allowed just 16 balls past him. Additionally, he produced 10 shut games. Lane Grace was the next man up last season, protecting the net in five games and stopping five shots during his sophomore year.

The highest scoring returners from the 2023 team are the midfield duo of Julian Warfield and Nathan Taylor, who scored nine and six goals, respectively, in their junior and sophomore seasons.

With the season just around the corner, the focus in the Mustangs’ preseason preparation has been getting game-speed experience, as demonstrated by their challenging slate of scrimmage opponents.

“We’ve played two very good teams so far, in St. Xavier and South Warren so far,” Wiersema continued, detailing the preseason. “We found out where we could play certain guys, and who we couldn’t play where. We’re figuring out different ways to play, and finding out a lot about our strengths and weaknesses...We’ve seen some tough competition, and hopefully we’re ready to go.”

The Mustangs open their season this coming Monday, on August 12 across town at St. Mary. After their home opener against Calloway County the next day, McCracken will embark on a weekend road swing, taking on Henry Clay before a highly anticipated state semifinal rematch with Lafayette. Later in the month, the Mustangs have two further regional matchups, first taking on Paducah Tilghman on August 22, before closing out August by hosting Marshall County on the 29th.