The Roanoke College soccer team will open the season this weekend when they play in the Lynchburg College Invitational.
The Maroons will open with UMass-Boston on Friday, September 1, at 4:30 pm. On Sunday Roanoke will take on Pfeiffer College at 3:30 pm. Roanoke’s first home game is Saturday, September 9, at 5:30 pm against Penn State-Abington in the All-Sports Café Roanoke Invitational.
Last season, Roanoke finished 9-5-5 overall and 5-0-4 in conference after defeating Eastern Mennonite 1-0 in the ODAC Tournament quarterfinals to advance to the semifinals. RC returns five 2016 All-ODAC selections including Rookie of the Year Marc Hoppler and NSCAA All-Region selection Fortune Sibanda. Sam Rauf, Tim Mahabir and Nick Tadros were also selections to the all-conference teams in 2016.
The Maroons were third ranked in this year’s ODAC preseason poll, behind Washington & Lee and Lynchburg. W&L picked up 10 first place votes on the way to a table-topping 115 points. Defending ODAC champion Lynchburg College collected three top nods as part of a 111-tally showing. Roanoke College secured the remaining first place vote and also eclipsed the 100-point plateau with 103 markers in the annual coaches’ survey.
Roanoke College Head Men’s Soccer coach Ryan Pflugrad has added a pair of assistant coaches for the coming season. Curran Dhar comes to RC after spending the last year as an assistant coach for the University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh, Scotland. Dhar was involved in all aspects of player development and match tactics.
A native of New York, New York, Dhar was a part of the South Bronx United team serving as an assistant coach for the U-12 and U-19 team before leading the U-19 team from 2014-16. Dhar is a 2016 graduate of NYU and he earned his master’s degree while at Edinburgh.
Austin Rose, a 2008 graduate of Roanoke College, joins Pflugrad’s staff and will work with the Maroon keepers. Rose was the 2004 Old Dominion Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year. Rose had 15 shutouts while playing for Roanoke, tying for fourth in school history, while his 177 saves ranks eighth best.
“We are very excited to have Austin and Curran joining the staff,” said Pflugrad. “Austin is one of the top goalkeepers in our program’s history here at Roanoke. We are fortunate to have him working with our players. Curran is a young coach with a keen eye for the game. In addition, his education and abilities in performance psychology will benefit our student athletes and program.”
The duo joins Alistair Moore who is entering his third season with the Maroons. Moore has helped RC to 21 wins during his first two seasons with the program.
