(Oakland) A Western Iowa Conference championship is what the Riverside boys soccer team is pursuing this season.
The Bulldogs were a game back of league champ Treynor last year. Coach Rick Ryun is optimistic with the group he has returning. “Some of the kids I’m expecting big things from would be Braydon Hill, Rhett Bentley, Ayden Salais and then on defense Mikey Casson and Austin Kremkoski.”
Three of the top four goal scorers are gone from last year’s 13-win squad and they must replace goalkeeper Eli Ryun who produced 78 saves. “We have some big shoes to fill. We lost 6 or 7 seniors that played soccer their whole live. The good thing is they taught a lot of these underclassmen well. I’ve seen huge improvement in some of these younger kids. A real big whole is going to be the goalie spot.”
Three of the team’s four losses last year were to Treynor and two of those matches were by one goal. Coach Ryun views the Cardinals as the team to beat once again. “Their coach does a great job with them and they play soccer year round so they are very fundamentally sound. They know how to play soccer and they are great athletes. The last two times we played them we thought we were going to beat them. It came down to the last couple of minutes.” Ryun expects Underwood to be strong as well and isn’t counting out AHSTW.
Riverside starts the season on the road Monday against Atlantic.
Riverside coach Rick Ryun:
