Pioneer men’s soccer ready for challenging schedule

Platteville, Wis.- Even though the University of Wisconsin-Platteville men's soccer team does not compete in a conference, the Pioneers will highlight their wiliness and determination to play a tough and competitive schedule in 2021. The Pioneers are independent, and Director of Soccer Sam Koenig will challenge his young team with four 2019 NCAA Tournament teams.

"We will try to play a top 10, top 25 strength of schedule as much as possible," Koenig said.

The Pioneers will open the 2021 season at home when Milwaukee School of Engineering visits Ralph E. Davis Stadium for a 7 p.m. kickoff. It will be 669 days since the Pioneers last played a soccer match.

The Pioneers will play the first of four NCAA Tournament qualifying teams when Central Iowa comes to UW-Platteville for a 4 p.m. game in Ralph E. Davis Stadium.

Koenig and the Pioneers will travel to Michigan for two matches to open October. UW-Platteville will face the second NCAA team on Saturday, Oct. 2 when it battles Hope College at 6 p.m.

The final two NCAA tournament teams will travel to Platteville and Ralph E. Davis Stadium. Luther College, a 2019 NCAA Regional Final team, visits on Friday, Oct. 22 for a 7:30 p.m. match. While rival UW-Whitewater will visit on Wednesday, Oct. 27 for a 7 p.m. match.

The Pioneers will look young and inexperienced on paper, since only nine of the 35-man roster, have college experience, but all nine played plenty of minutes for the Pioneers.

"Even though we may look like a young team, a lot of those guys started a lot of games for us and played college minutes for us," Koenig said. "We are going to be young and energetic. We want to play a style of soccer that is pressing and swarming all over the field. I believe for us, the COVID year off was beneficial to us. It allowed us to develop a lot of the new guys to get ready for the college game and ready to play Sept. 1."

Even with the youth that litters his roster, Koenig is excited about the returning leadership he has. "We will be confident. We have a great leadership group that is older," he said. "Spencer Butterfield has been a leader, not only in our soccer program, but on our campus. It is fun having good leadership, that is what it takes to win, having good leaders."

The Pioneers return the 2019 Wisconsin freshman newcomer of the year Jack Gentilli. "In my opinion, he is much better than the 2019 season, it should be fun for us to have him on the field," Koenig said.

The newcomers have made an impression in fall camp, such an impression, Koenig feels all 26 newcomers will get minutes.

"We may look like a young group with 26 new players, but we are deep and have talent," Koenig said. "I am very excited to see this group play. It will be very difficult for us to pick a starting 11 and who will sub into the game. We did a scrimmage; the level did not drop by anyone coming on the field. For a coaching staff it is fun, but it also makes for some tough decisions. You probably will see all 26 newcomers on the field this year and all 35 players play. We will try to wear teams out."

Even though the Pioneers will not play in the WIAC, it is still something to look forward to when another WIAC school is on the schedule. In addition to hosting UW-Whitewater, the Pioneers will welcome UW-Eau Claire to Ralph E. Davis Pioneer Stadium for the first time ever on Saturday, Nov. 6 at 1 p.m for senior day.

To follow the Pioneers all season, visit www.Letsgopioneers.com for links for live stats, postgame recaps and links for the contests that are live streamed. Follow the official social media accounts of Pioneer Athletics on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.