ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Navy men's soccer (0-0-0) opens its 100th season in program history on Sunday night against North Carolina State (0-3-0). Opening kick is set for 7 p.m. from the Dail Soccer Stadium in Raleigh, N.C. Live video coverage of the match is will be on ACC Network Extra on WatchESPN.
Due to current state guidelines in North Carolina, attendance for the match is limited to family of student-athletes and coaches of the North Carolina State program.
Navy enters the season following a 12-4-1 season in 2019 where the Midshipmen started the season with 11-straight wins and a top-20 ranking nationally. Navy posted a record of 5-3-1 in the Patriot League to finish third in the standings en route to hosting a quarterfinal contest. The Midshipmen have a lot of key parts back from a year ago as they have nine of 11 starters returning for the 2020 campaign. Navy returns its five United Soccer Coaches All-Region award winners in
Matt Nocita,
Tyler Collins,
Ian Bramblett,
Wyatt Millard and
Jacob Williams. Along with earning All-Region honors each of the five was selected to All-Patriot League teams where they were joined by
Nicko West. Nocita was also voted as the Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year as he was just the third different player in program history to earn the recognition.
The Midshipmen's top-two scorers from a year ago return for the 2020 season as the pair of West and Williams each scored seven goals to lead the team and Williams was second on the team with four assists in 2019.
Joe Alex led the team in game-winning goals as each of his three tallies were game-clinching scores.
In goal, Bramblett played all 1568:16 for Navy last season where he posted a 0.57 goals-against average and a .808 save percentage. He made 42 of the teams 45 saves last season as the team posted 10 shutouts in 17 matches. Bramblett ranked fourth in the nation in goals-against average and eighth in save percentage. As a team, the Midshipmen ranked fourth in shutout percentage (.588), fourth in team goals-against average (0.57) and eighth in save percentage (.818).
Navy had one preseason contest with an exhibition match on the road against Virginia – who is currently ranked fifth in the nation and was ranked third in the preseason. In the exhibition, the Midshipmen scored three unanswered goals to upend the Cavaliers. After trailing by two goals less than 25 minutes into the game,
David Jackson scored on a penalty kick just before halftime and then in the final 10 minutes of the game, the pair of Williams and West scored 2:45 apart for the game-tying and game-winning goals, respectively. Navy only allowed three shots on goal for the entire match and did not surrender a shot on goal in the second half.
The Wolfpack comes into this weekend's match with a record of 0-3-0 as they have dropped a pair of contests to Duke, 1-0 and 3-1, and suffered a 4-1 loss to top-ranked Wake Forest. Alex Bautista and Ivy Brisma have each scored a goal for North Carolina State with AJ Seals and Pepe Garcia recording the assists. In goal, Leon Krapf has played each minute in the first three games of the season where he has made five saves while allowing eight goals.
Prior to the season, the Wolfpack was selected to finish fourth in the ACC South Region. NC State also has six players returning from its 2019 squad that started at least 17 of the team's 19 games, including Kuda Muskwe who was tied for the team lead in goals last year and he returned to the Wolfpack rotation last time out against Duke.
In the all-time series, North Carolina State holds a 3-1-1 advantage as Navy's lone win came in the first meeting back in 1955, 5-0. The last time the two programs met was in 2010 in Raleigh when the Wolfpack earned a 2-1 decision over the Midshipmen.
