Emporia High girls soccer coach John Decker knows the big question mark entering this season: his offense.
The Spartans had enough trouble scoring during last year’s 8-9-1 season — during one six-game stretch, they were shut out five times. And this year, they’ll be without last season’s top offensive threat in would-be senior Jordan Sosa, who’s completing her schoolwork outside EHS. A first team All-State selection as a sophomore and a second team All-Centennial League pick last year, Sosa’s absence will be felt as the Spartans look for a new primary attacker.
“That’s the question this year: how are we going to score goals?” Decker said. “And we’re gonna have to be creative about that. I imagine we’re gonna throw a lot of different looks at them.”
But more on the search for scorers later. Emporia competed with defense last year, and once again, that’s where any success the Spartans enjoy is going to start. Headlining the defense are junior sweeper Kelly Bacon, a first team All-League pick last year, and senior goalkeeper Melanie Nuessen, a second team All-Centennial selection.
Nuessen, who suffered a nasty kick to the face in the Spartans’ season-ending Regional loss at Salina Central last spring, is healthy and ready to maintain her status as one of the league’s better keepers. She’s signed to play at Butler County Community College next year.
“We definitely have high goals this year, because we have so many returning starters,” she said. “We also have some newer ones that can step in for the three (seniors) that we lost last year. But our goals so far this year is just stay together as a team and make it as far as we can, and hopefully make it farther than any of our other three years we’ve been here so far.”
Junior Bailey Sosa was a second team All-League pick last season and a key part of the defense while also playing some midfield; Decker says she’s likely to play midfield this year. Decker also knows Nuessen will be in goal, Bacon’s likely to be back at sweeper and Emily Burris will likely play up front. Beyond that, he’s in wait-and-see mode on what his lineup is going to be when the Spartans open their season at the Titan Classic in Wichita at the end of this month.
Burris, a sophomore, might be the best early bet to become the Spartans’ new primary scorer. As a freshman, she proved capable of some strong offensive efforts, including a two-goal, four-assist performance in a Regional win over Highland Park.
“She has the ability to score goals,” Decker said. “I’m hoping to get Bailey out of defense more; she has the ability to score goals. You might even see Kelly coming up in key situations; she can score. And then there’s a lot of other people. There’s a lot of young players that I know have the ability; they just haven’t stepped up and done it so far.”
Other returners who are likely play more minutes this year include seniors Chloe Blake and Noelle Waters and sophomores Paola Candia and Melina Torres.
“All my players know that they need to be flexible and need to be able to play any position,” Decker said. “So I’ll probably be throwing them all around here.”
The Spartans, who started last season 3-0 in the process of winning the Red bracket of the Titan Classic, open play in this year’s edition of the tournament with a March 29 game against Hutchinson.