Pacific Lutheran men’s soccer head coach John Yorke enters his sixth season with his most talented team, and given the third-place conference finish from a year ago, the 2007 PLU squad would seem to be a strong contender for a Northwest Conference title. Conference coaches agree as the Lutes came in a close second to defending champion Puget Sound in a preseason poll.

“This is the most talented team, for sure, since I’ve been here,” said Yorke, who has compiled a 49-44-5 record at his alma mater. “It would be our best because it’s the best mix of talent and experience that we’ve had. That said our conference is still very difficult. We feel like we can challenge the top three or four teams. On paper we look good, but we have to look good on the field, too.”

Yorke welcomes back 10 players who started at least half of the team’s games last year, starting with the defense, where first team All-Northwest Conference senior Brian Lubeck joins juniors Trevor McDonald and Andy Stoltz and sophomore Derek MacLean. All started at least 18 of the team’s 19 games last season in front of junior Andrew Croft’s 17 starts at goalkeeper. “Lubeck brings leadership, senior presence, a guy who’s lived through the progression of where we’ve been and is ready to go to the next level. He’s a good example for the younger players,” said Yorke.

Michael Ferguson

On the offensive side, first team All-Northwest Conference forward Michael Ferguson returns for his senior year 14 goals shy of tying Brian Gardner’s nearly 20-year old school career record of 49 goals. “Our goal is to win the conference championship; and if in doing that, Ferguson can get the scoring record, that would be great,” said Yorke.

Ferguson will be joined by senior midfielder Erik Gracey, who started 16 games last season and tied for the team lead with five assists with junior midfielder/forward Derek Karamatic, who looks to rebound from a season in which injuries held him out of six games and prevented him from starting all but five. Sophomore midfielder Henrik Oiseth will also look to step up and help replace the offensive production of Baard Asker, whose 10 goals last season were second on the team. Also returning to the team is senior forward Trevor Jacka, who played for PLU in 2003 and 2004 before playing a year at Evergreen State College and sitting out last season.

Talented newcomers Daniel Mangum and Brian Kostol will push Croft at goalkeeper while Joern Hella looks to earn a starting job on defense. Sophomore midfielder Jason Bjorgo joins the team after playing for Evergreen State College last season, and freshman forward Daniele Zaccagnini is another member of a solid incoming class. Both Bjorgo and Zaccagnini bring great talent, quickness and touch to the team, providing greater speed and depth up front for the Lutes.

Right from the start, the Lutes will face tough competition, with two of their first three games on the road against teams ranked in the preseason poll’s top 12. Yorke explains that this is part of “becoming the regional and national program that we want to become. We have to be able to test ourselves against those teams to see where we’re at. The older players are tired of hearing that we’re close. It’s time to step up and go to the top.”