Senior leadership key for BVA boys
By JOSE NEGRON
jnegron@yourmvi.com
The Belle Vernon Area boys soccer team enters the fall season with a new coach and a bevy of experienced players to depend on.
Alan Yeschenko enters his first season at the helm of the Leopards with 10 seniors on the roster, including nine starters.
If this year’s group is to win a third straight section title and qualify for the WPIAL playoffs for the seventh consecutive year, the leadership and play of their veteran contributors will be of the utmost importance.
“I’m coming in to a very confident senior group of leaders,” said Yeschenko, who spent one season as an assistant at BVA before taking over as head coach in March following the resignation of Rob Miele.
“We named four captains this year and I was never a huge fan of naming four and having them all be seniors, but so many of these kids are deserving. Our senior leadership has really been phenomenal across the board.”
The Leopards, who finished 14-3 overall and 10-2 in section play last season , will be led by its four senior captains in Daniel Sassak, Daniel Gordon, Tyler Kovatch and Dimitri Apodiakos.
An All-WPIAL selection as a junior last season, Sassak returns after scoring 33 goals and adding 14 assists a year ago. He set BVA records for most goals (six) and points (15) in a single game and finished just four goals shy of tying the single-season record of 37 set by Markello Apodiakos in 2017.
“Returning Daniel up top is huge,” Yeschenko said of Sassak, who was recently named to the High School All-American games watch list.
“With a goal scorer like him being in the lineup, it sure allows us to worry less about how we’re going to find the back of the net.”
Gordon was oftentimes used as a holding midfielder last season with Nick Nagy serving in an attacking mid position. With the graduation of Nagy, who scored 15 goals and tied Sassak for the team lead in assists last season, Gordon will look to fill an important void for the Leps.
“Nagy is a tough player to replace, but we’re going to have Sassak up top with Cheeks, Kovatch and Logan Kolodychak right there, too,” Yeschenko said. “These guys will take pressure off of Daniel. I know a lot of teams will want to mark him, but that could be a mistake with the type of support he has around him.”
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