2007 season outlook

The Fire will open up their 2007 season as defending NCCAA II National Champions with eight home games and a three-game home stand.

Also, the Fire welcomes three new competitors in 2007: Fontbonne University (St. Louis, Mo.), Huntingdon College (Montgomery, Ala.), and Trinity Baptist (Jacksonville, Fla.).

SEU will continue its tradition of playing tough non-region opponents, the Fire once again taking on NCAA II Palm Beach Atlantic University and NAIA Northwood University this year.

The South Region Tournament will be held this year in Clearwater, Fla., hosted by Clearwater Christian College. The tournament will take place October 26-27.

The Fire has won two of the past three South Region titles and went 11-1 versus South Region opponents last season.

"This year will be a new experience for some of the leaders on the team," said Head Coach Drew Stacey. "We lost some of the best defenders the university has ever seen in Robert Rivers, James Wentworth, and Chad Braddock. It is difficult to replace such a group of players, and I can say that I have not been able to do that for this coming season."

Despite losing so much experience in the backfield, Coach Stacey has an array of players who are versatile enough to play mid-field and defender positions.

"I believe the players I have recruited will eventually reach that level, but they have to get on the field and repeatedly test themselves," added Stacey. "It takes rough water to polish a stone and I have confidence we will start to see some of those rough edges start to level out by regionals."

Despite all of the inexperience in the backfield, the Fire will have five First Team All-Region players returning this season: seniors Jon Jones, Bart Sheldrake, and George Arroyo and juniors Ryan Rogers and Matt Steelfox.

Jones set school records with 21 goals, nine assists, and 51 points in 2006. Despite the goal-scoring threat, look for Jones to see some time on defense in 2007.

Sheldrake set a school record with seven shutouts in 2006, while Arroyo is a two-time All-South Region player and a three-year starter playing the mid-field position.

Rogers is an exciting play-maker who scored the winning goal in the 2006 National Championship game, and Steelfox scored 19 goals in 2006.

Two other Fire players earned Second Team All-Region honors last season and also return, Jacob Bloodworth and Ryan Kirk.

Bloodworth was third on the team in scoring last season, tallying 14 goals, while Kirk tied for the school record with nine assists last season and added eight goals.

Coach Stacey will also have the talents of Matt LoPresti, Kirk Carey, and Vijay Chandra returning.

LoPresti appeared in 17 games as a freshman and really came on at the end of the 2006 season, while Carey scored five goals and added seven assists last year.

Chandra is a solid defender who appeared in 23 games last year, scoring three goals and adding five assists.

SEU also returns Evan Nickerson, Jonathan Vincent, John Peter Louine, and Joseph Lovette. All of these players give Coach Stacey a tremendous amount of depth on his roster.

Coach Stacey also welcomes nine newcomers to this year's team.

Matt Honeycutt (Gainesville, Fla.), Justin Tait (Lakeland, Fla.), Adam Clark (Micanopy, Fla.), John Allison (Lakeland, Fla.), Jared Rendon (Cape Coral, Fla.), Kyle Marshall (Orlando, Fla.), Jonathan Wilson (Winston-Salem, N.C.), and Andrew Prevost.