Veterans will lead the way for EF boys

By Jose Negron

jnegron@yourmvi.com

Boys soccer players at Elizabeth Forward have been battle tested playing under head coach Doug Finke over the last three seasons. 

Younger players received valuable playing time and did so against top-notch competition. 

Now, they will reap the benefits of that as experience may serve as Elizabeth Forward’s biggest strength heading into the fall campaign. 

“I think we have set high expectations for ourselves,” said Finke, who has led the Warriors to the playoffs in all three of his years at the helm. “We do return pretty much the core of our team and we have a lot of kids who are ready to step up, and they’ve been proving that this offseason. 

“A lot of our kids have been starting for a while and the experience is there. Hopefully they are able to take the next step and compete for a section title and control what they can control in some of these games.” 

The Warriors are coming off a season in which they finished at 9-9-1 overall and 7-4-1 in Section 1-2A. EF advanced to the WPIAL playoffs before falling in the first round for the fourth straight year.

This year’s team, which returns over eight players who started at least one game a year ago, may be the one that finally gets over that hump, though. 

And it all starts with seniors Andrew Smith and Donovan Woytsek. 

The pair will once again lead the way offensively for the Warriors after tying for the team lead with 13 goals last season. Smith chipped in with eight assists, while Woytsek had four. 

“Those two really feed off each other,” Finke said. “Their competition is ‘Who is going to get the next goal,’ and that provides good competition, but they also know they can feed each other as well. It’s a great thing to have those two guys with their competitive edge.” 

To read the rest of this story, please see a copy of Wednesday’s Mon Valley Independent, call 724-314-0035 to subscribe or subscribe to our online edition at https://e.monvalleyindependent.com.