The boys’ soccer team has overcome the loss of top scorer Chris Bouley.
By Kevin Mills
Staff Writer

Darren Allen knew he had a goal-scoring void to fill, but the Mt. Abram boys’ soccer coach also believed he had the players to do it.

“The potential was there,” said Allen. “I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen or not.”

The Roadrunners didn’t lose many from last year’s club that went 10-3-2 overall and lost in the Western C quarterfinals. Among the graduated though were all-star defenders Josh Adams and Billy Perkins and top goal-scorer Chris Bouley, who had 18 goals last season.

“I told them at the beginning, someone’s got to replace an 18-goal scorer,” said Allen. “I don’t know who that’s going to be.”

Sam Witherspoon heard the challenge, as did everyone else. The Roadrunners have risen to that task and maintained their goal scoring potency. Mt. Abram has already scored 28 goals in seven games while going 6-0-1, ranking them fifth in Western C.

“So we replaced our offense with even more,” said Frank Hayes. “I think we’ve improved a lot.”

Witherspoon has played a significant part in that. The junior leads the team with 10 goals already this season. Last year, he says, he had “one, if any.”

“Coach has told me right from the get-go that he needed me to score goals,” said Witherspoon. “I got shutout my first game, but my second game, I got four goals and that was a big confidence booster.”

He had another game with three goals and scored the overtime game-winner against Monmouth.

“Last year, I shot a lot of goals over the net,” he said. “I played men’s league this summer and have been working on keeping the ball low.”

Witherspoon just adds to an already balanced and formidable group of scoring Roadrunners. MVC all-star Damien Wood is up front with Witherspoon while Hayes and Jeff Beal are talented midfielders that can control the midfield but be threats in front of the net as well.

Sam Dyar, Christian Talmage, Mike Sweeney, Nate Manning, Justin Howard, Riley Adams, Kevin Alari, T.J. Ladd and Jimmy Creznic have all joined in on the goal scoring.

“It gives us more intensity in everything,” said Hayes of that kind of balance. “Every little run we have, it builds everything up. We’re ready to put something in.”

Mt. Abram is a team that will try and outwork you and outgrind you. With a variety of players that can make something happen up front, that style suits its personnel well.

“We knew we had a lot of guns coming up,” said Hayes. “We were hoping Witherspoon comes through, and he does. Everybody’s pulling their weight.”

One factor says Allen is developing the mindset that the Roadrunners haven’t had in the past.

“For us the biggest challenge is the mental toughness,” he said. “We haven’t had to be mentally tough because we haven’t been expected to win in years past. Last year, we lost some big players. This year, I said, “You guys have got all the tools. You just have to have the mental toughness part, which is totally mental. Once you accomplish that, who knows what can happen.”

While last year’s club was led by the defensive Stalwarts in Adams and Perkins, this club is built around players up front like Hayes, Beal Wood and Witherspoon. While the makeup and leadership is different, the success of a year ago still leaves its impression on this club. Mt. Abram produced its first winning season since 1995 last year with 10 wins and that has made this club even more determined.

“We built off last year,” said Witherspoon. “We went 10-2-2 and we ended up sixth in (Western C). So we realized that you have to win pretty much every game. That was our goal for this year to come out and try to keep a good record like last year but also keep it together as a team.”

“Everybody’s stepped up,” said Hayes. “Everybody has that edge. We know how far we can go, and we work harder.”