By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– The Chemeketa Community College Men’s Soccer team’s defense really stepped up big last Fall.
Anchored by Josh Vargas and Joshua Olvera, the duo combined for 65 saves and allowed just an average of 2.5 goals a game scored against them with three shutouts to their names. The Storm went 3-7-3 last Fall with four games being decided by one goal.
Olvera returns this Fall for Chemeketa to lead the goalkeeper room entering this season for the Storm, who will look to increase their offensive prowess to back up their defensive effort that became their identity last year.
“I think with Josh splitting some time, getting some experience last year, it’s going to be crucial for him to step up this year. But we also recruited two freshmen coming in, one from Westview High School, Deion (Herrera) and Woodburn High School Hayden Estrada. We’re in safe hands back there,” said third-year Storm Head Coach Martin Maldonado.
“We’re going to build off of that,” Maldonado said of his defense. “We learned and hopefully progressed into something special this year.”
Addison Samuell (Stayton), and David Garcia (McKay) are some of the offensive firepower returning. Those returners, plus some new players coming in like Isaac Gaitan and Israel Orta, both from McNary, and some out-of-state talent coming in from Hawaii to help bolster the offensive game inside and out entering this Fall. Chemeketa scored only 15 goals last year and had put pressure on the Storm Defensive third to help keep the squad in games.
The plan is that those newer offensive pieces, along with the veterans coming back up front, will help spark something in the offensive third. To hopefully get some pressure off the Chemeketa defense throughout the game and it’s been something that they’ve been working on this preseason going into the NWAC Friendlies here in a few days.
“We got a lot of young pieces coming in. We got some good pieces going forward,” said Maldonado. “We’ve been working in the preseason and I think we’re going to do well hopefully at the NWAC Friendlies and show that we have a little more offense this year to go with our defense.”
The Storm will open the season with the NWAC Friendlies on August 18 up at Tukwila, Washington when they play Centralia on the 18 before playing Shoreline on August 19. Chemeketa will return to play in Salem on August 22 against Corban and August 23 against Pierce at Corban University.
