By John Raffel
The Mount Pleasant boys soccer team clearly seems to be on its way back, building something very promising for the future.
That’s the word from first-year Oilers coach Jon Crain, who likes what he saw on the field.
The Oilers’ hopes for a lengthy and prosperous postseason took a hit with a 1-0 district title game loss to Petoskey.
The team’s final record was 8-8-4.
“It was a transition role for me,” Crain said. “We graduated 10 or 11 seniors last year. It was a bit of a transition season overall. We played some tough teams this season and had some success. Injuries and lack of depth on the team cost us some of those closer ones at the end of the season and kind of hurt us a little bit.”
The Oilers had several outstanding players, including captain Kyle Montgomery, who was first-team all-conference, all-academic, and all-district. He’s a senior who played center-mid, had seven goals, and was injured for a few weeks of the season.
Connor Fiolek, a senior, was first-team all-conference, all-academic, and all-district. He played center back (defense), had four goals this year, and also was placekicker for the football team that lost in the regional final.
Johnny McCarthy, a senior, was a second-team all-conference, all-academic, and all-district defensive player who had two goals.
Brendan Cashen, a junior, was second-team all-conference, all-academic, and all-district. He led the team in points with seven goals and nine assists, tied for most goals on the team, and was first in assists. He mostly played outside attacking mid.
Frederik Roth was second-team all-conference and all-district. “He’s a German exchange student who played goalie for us, and he split time with another goalie, as well,” Crain said.
Sammy Shamlin was a junior defensive player, who was honorable mention all-conference and all-district. “He came out for corners and ended with five goals,” Crain said. “He was also injured for a couple weeks of the season.”