2024 Men's Soccer Season Preview

Erik Holth, CBC Sports Information Director

            Conway, Ark. – Central Baptist College men's soccer kicks off the fall sports season on Monday evening when they take on the Eagles of Central Methodist University following their exhibition game tomorrow night against the Little Rock Rangers Under-23 squad. Kickoff from Burns Park on Monday night is scheduled for 6 p.m.

            "I feel much more confident entering year two," said head coach Dylan Perdue. "We had a fantastic team last year and I had to reprepare for this year. I was able to bring in a pretty big roster this year and the guys came in fit. Everyone was near perfect in their fitness and ready to go."

The roster includes 17 players from last year's 5-9-5 team. The returners are led by American Midwest Conference First Team goalkeeper Jasper Gadellaa and AMC honorable mention selections Hugh McAuley and Joe McElhinney, who was also the lone Mustang selected to last year's All-AMC Tournament team. Also included in the returners are Jort Bressers, Parker Tebo, Mario Ceballos, Padry Muleba, Alfredo Lopez, Manny Almaraz, Ethan Urban, Gabriel Mata, Victor Alvarez, Ibrahim Khan, Eric Padron, James Settle, Michael Settle, Jose Simon-Nieves and Rodney Vasques. "Joe will be our captain and he's a pretty big guy for us," said Perdue. "Manny is back and he's a three-year starter, Jasper in goal is a huge returner for us and Hugh is one of our most creative players. We look forward to having those guys back on the squad."

An international flair dots a roster of 23 newcomers that signed with CBC this year, representing five countries from around the world. Billy Murray is the lone player from Scotland on the roster and he is joined by Ewan Burdin and Tim Echaniz from France, Albin Julin, Liam Persson, Alexander Bertilsson, and Edvin Yttergren from Sweden, Filip Geljic from Germany, Jafar Chehade from Brazil and Jack McNamara from England. Joining them are Hugo Chacon from Little Rock Catholic, Hayes Lawrence from Texarkana, Henry Gomez from National Park College, Jad Le from Frisco, Texas, Sean Graaf from Mayflower, Brycen Clause from Fort Worth, Texas, Calan Cowdery from Mayflower, Jaylen Cranford, Denilson Hernandez and Maurice McNealy from White Hall, Brayden Hall from Cabot, Calvin Hargis from Jonesboro and Kevin Puente from National Park College. "Our goal is out with the old and in with the new," said Perdue. "We brought in a lot of players to help us do that."

In addition to their 5-9-5 overall record last season, CBC went 1-1-5 in the AMC, good for a fifth place finish in the regular season. Their season ended with a 4-1 loss at William Woods in the AMC Tournament. "Last year we competed really well, only losing to Columbia in the regular season," added Perdue. "We beat Hannibal-LaGrange last year as well. We were down in a lot of those games and were able to fight back and show some resilience. With the squad that we have this year, we are very excited. I see us finishing as high as possible in the AMC." CBC was picked to finish fifth again in the preseason poll by the AMC coaches.

"Fans should expect good soccer," said Perdue when asked what fans can expect to see this season. "We will play a possession style and we want to play high octane fast paced attacking soccer. I think this team is very special.