Isaiah J. Downing

2021 Men's Soccer Season In Review

12/15/2021 10:15:00 AM

By: Tyler Tvelia, Assistant Sports Information Director

MEN'S SOCCER SEASON RECAP

In his first season as the Mountain Lion's Interim Head Coach, Lewis Wilcox led the team to an 8-8-1 overall finish and a 4-6 record in RMAC conference play. UCCS recorded a 4-3-1 record at Mountain Lion Stadium, while going 2-5 on the road and 2-0 in neutral site games.
The Mountain Lion's season got off to a hot start as the team picked up an opening day victory over Newman University on Sept. 3 before playing MSU Billings to a scoreless double overtime draw on Sept. 5, bringing their record to 1-0-1 after the first weekend of action.
After taking their first loss of the season at Rockhurst on Sept. 10, UCCS set out for Lubbock, Texas, where they encountered their first adversity of the season. Due to COVID-19 precautions, the Mountain Lions were unable to play their originally scheduled match with Lubbock Christian, resulting in the team being forced to play on back-to-back days against Saint Martin's University and Northeastern State University. The team would not be deterred by the challenge at hand, as they went on to defeat Saint Martin's in a dramatic 4-3 overtime victory, then came back the next day to complete the road sweep with a 3-2 win over NSU.
UCCS kept their momentum rolling upon returning home, extending their winning streak to three games with a 2-0 shutout win over Adams State on Sept. 24 and pushing their overall season record to 4-1-1.
The Mountain Lions followed up their three-game winning streak with a three-game slide that included a hard-fought 2-1 loss to Colorado Christian University in the team's final non-conference match and a pair of home defeats against Westminster College and Colorado Mesa University to begin the conference season.
Sitting at an even 4-4-1 and having dropped their first two conference games, the Mountain Lions were looking for a spark as they headed north to battle a formidable Regis University squad. All-America midfielder Alex Andersson would provide just that, as he carried UCCS to a 3-2 win over the Rangers with the first hat trick of his collegiate career. UCCS would proceed to win their next two games against South Dakota Mines and Adams State to push their season record to 7-4-1 and improve to 3-2 in RMAC action heading into the home stretch of the conference season.
Following a back-and-forth 4-3 loss at Fort Lewis on Oct. 17, the Mountain Lions managed to avenge their early season setback to CCU as they shutout the Cougars 2-0 on Oct. 21 to pick up their eighth win of the season.
A tough end of season schedule that included games against then No. 22 Colorado School of Mines and a pair of teams that ultimately made the RMAC Tournament in CSU Pueblo and MSU Denver would prove to be too much for the Mountain Lions as they dropped their final three games to finish at 8-8-1 overall and just outside the conference playoffs at 4-6.

AWARD WINNERS

Alex Andersson (RMAC Offensive Player of the Week (10/12, 11/2), RMAC All-Academic First Team, All-RMAC First Team, RMAC Player of the Year, D2CCA All-South Central Region First Team, D2CCA All-America First Team)
Adam Baldwin (RMAC All-Academic First Team, All-RMAC Honorable Mention, COSIDA Academic All-District)
Nic Grotle (RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll)
Kelton Hooker (RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll)
Andreas Kokoska (RMAC Goalkeeper of the Week (9/21, 10/12))
Liam McGuire (RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll)
Kolby Raineri (RMAC Offensive Player of the Week (9/21), RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll, All-RMAC Honorable Mention, D2CCA All-South Central Region Second Team)
Adin Schwenke (RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll)
Jack Souder (RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll)
Luke Sussex (RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll)
Kaydon Zamora-Reeves (RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll)

STAT LEADERS

Offensively, the Mountain Lions ranked fourth in the RMAC with 1.88 goals scored per game and averaged 13.8 shots per game.
UCCS converted eight successful penalty kicks as a team in 2021, ranking as the most in the RMAC and tied for the second most in all of Division II.
On the defensive end, UCCS allowed 37 total goals (2.12 per game) and opponents averaged 15.0 shots per game.
Despite missing the start of the season due to injury, sophomore Alex Andersson played a key role in the Mountain Lion's offensive success as he led the RMAC with 12 goals, 26 points, 3.50 shots per game and 1.90 shots on goal per game across just ten games and 620 minutes played. The 2021 RMAC Player of the Year also added a pair of assists and recorded two game-winning goals while going a perfect 4-for-4 on his penalty kick attempts.
Another critical player in the Mountain Lion's offensive attack was junior Kolby Raineri, who led the team with four assists, 44 total shots and 24 total shots on goal while starting each of the Mountain Lion's 17 games this season. The native of Ankeny, Iowa, also added five goals, a career-high 14 points, and two clutch game-winning goals while playing the most minutes of any UCCS field player with 1,444.
A stalwart in the Mountain Lion's lineup over the past three seasons, defender Liam McGuire logged another strong season in the black and gold as he matched his career-high with four goals and recorded ten points while starting 16 games. McGuire added two assists to bring his career total to 12, which ranks tied for the eighth most assists in program history.
In his first season with the Mountain Lions, Luka Cecic came up big for the team on multiple occasions as he paced the squad with three game-winning goals. Cecic would finish the season with four total goals and an assist for nine total points.
Rounding out the scoring for UCCS were Nic Grotle (3 goals), Adam Baldwin (2 goals), Adin Schwenke (1 goal), and Jack Souder (1 goal).
In frame, sophomore Andreas Kokoska started all 17 games for the Mountain Lions, recording a Goals Against Average of 2.12 and adding 63 saves across 1,569 minutes. Kokoska ranked tied for third in the conference with four shutouts and his 63 saves were the fifth most among RMAC goalkeepers.

HOT TAKES

UCCS finishes the season ninth in the conference standings, but stayed in contention for a spot in the RMAC Tournament until the final day of the season and had the opportunity to rise as high as fifth in the standings.
The Mountain Lion's back-to-back games on Sep. 17-18 against Saint Martin's and NSU marked the first time the team had competed on consecutive days since the 2006 season.
Midfielder Alex Andersson marks just the second player in UCCS men's soccer program history to be named to the All-America First Team, and the first since Greg Meyer accomplished the feat in 1997.
Andersson also sits as the first men's soccer player to be named as the RMAC Player of the Year since Kevin Noleen in 1999 and is the second player to earn the award in program history.
Andersson's hat trick against Regis on Oct. 10 was the fourteenth time in program history that a player scored three or more goals in a single match ,and first since Kolby Raineri did so against South Dakota Mines on Nov. 3, 2019.

2022 OUTLOOK

Lewis Wilcox will return for the 2022 season after having the interim tag removed from his title and being named as the full-time head coach on Nov. 24, 2021. Under Wilcox, the UCCS men's soccer program will look to continue their development and make it back to the RMAC Tournament for the first time since 2018.
"With a few key pieces and a few key changes to our culture and our day-to-day operations, it is exciting to see how special this program really could be," said Wilcox. "We're really excited for the fall, and it'll be a similar approach to this year in the fact that it's going to be a day-to-day grind. It's going to be not setting too lofty of goals at the start of the season since we don't really know what we have, but understanding that the sky really is the limit."

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