2022 SEASON PREVIEW

With about 35 players in the program, the NW Panthers have one of their largest squads in recent years. The preseason has gone well so far for the Panthers. Few injuries (although Caleb and John are still out for now)overall and most took only days to heal. The Panther Classic showed some promise and very good results. Never before have we defeated two NLC team in one day. A lot this season will depend on the workrate of the team. The talent is there but hard work is required in order to get the results. Staying healthy is key as well. A large group (13!) freshmen came out in what looks to be a class with a lot of promise and quality. The Panthers lost 4 seniors from last year and not having Joey and Michael in the middle meant that changes there were inevitable. Luis and Joel will hopefully be able to pick up where we left off last year. An offense with Dom, Sol and Carlos has shown early signs of promise. Wingbacks (of which a lot are needed) will see Grant and Alex intially but in a demanding position like this, others like Wes and Landon will have to come in a lot as well. The defense is built around Aiden who, after winning a National Championship at the club level, has shown a lot of confidence and looks to be ready to lead his team as a captain. He has completely recovered from his shoulder injury and with Ethan (our other captain) and Gifton, they will be working to hard to shut out opponents or at least keep the number of goals against low. Our solid backstop Trent has fierce competition from JV and -so far- back up keep Trace. Andrew and Jack will give us options offensively as they will be able to give our strikers some breathers to keep up the tempo, especially when pressing. Bryce will be a defensive option each game and he will be able to give our defenders a break when needed. The same goes for Alan who is in his first year with the program. Maddox and Drew (Davis) have shown very good performances in the pre-season. Maddox should see a lot of action when performing like he has and Drew should see decent playing time especially considering he is a V/JV swing player. Our season opener is vs the Concord Minutemen this coming Tuesday at Concord. Last year we were beaten 1-5. Concord will start quite a few seniors. Our expectation is that we will come away with a better result than last year. The first game is followed by the NW Invitational for august 20th, a week from this Saturday. New on the schedule this year are Rochester and Trinity (9/1 & 9/10 respectively). We look forward to a hopefully competetive and succesful season and will preview most games on this space. Froggy 102.7 will be at two home games this season, the first being the Northridge game. The JV starts their regular season next Tuesday vs Concord as well. We feel that we have a talented JV that is capable of breaking the JV school record of 8-4-2 set in 1999.