Simply put, it’s too bad that Friday’s men’s soccer match
against Notre Dame will be an exhibition.

With the Saint Louis University men’s soccer team ranked 11th in
the pre-season NSCAA/Adidas poll and Notre Dame following closely
at 12th, it is sure to be a hotly contested match, but if it
actually counted in the standings, it surely would have been an
affair to remember.

In any event, the Billikens will take to the exhibition circuit
one last time, Saturday night, at Robert R. Hermann Stadium, when
they will host the visiting Fighting Irish.

The Bills are undefeated so far in this short, but competitive,
exhibition season and are showing no signs of breaking that streak
any time soon.

Notre Dame is led this year by a trio pre-season all-Big East
players: junior goalkeeper Chris Sawyer along with seniors Justin
Detter and Jack Stewart.

The Irish will take the pitch for the first time this year
against an opposing squad, and they will bring with them memories
of a solid season and a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to in-state power
Indiana in the second round of the NCAA tournament last year, not
unlike SLU’s second round loss to Maryland.

On paper, the teams appear very similar. Both start incredible
players in goal, ND with Sawyer and SLU with junior Martin Hutton
minding the net. Hutton is on the pre-season Conference USA
All-Conference squad, after dominating opposing offenses last
season while posting a miniscule 0.81 goals against average last
season in helping the Bills to the conference tournament
championship and yet another NCAA tournament berth.

Hutton is joined by senior defenseman Kevin Wickart and Nick
Gannon on the All-Conference team as SLU’s three representatives.
Gannon and Wickart, as well as fellow senior defender Andy
Pusateri, will be the heart and soul of Billikens as well as the
biggest strength.

However, the similarities between the two Catholic schools don’t
end there.

Each team also boasts the one of the best recruiting classes in
the country. Highlighting SLU’s stacked recruiting class are Brian
Grazier and John DiRaimondo, two former members of the United
States under-17 National Team.

Both are from the St. Louis area and, as of right now, are still
training with the national team down in Florida, but should be
ready by the start of the season. However, joining Grazier and
DiRaimondo in this year’s freshman class are a plethora of other
highly touted and highly honored soccer players.

Will John, last year’s Missouri Player of the Year, brings with
him some of the softest feet and the sickest moves ever to grace
Hermann Field.

David Peplenski, an Adidas All-American from Marquette Prep in
Milwaukee last year, has the kind of aggressive nature, not to
mention the scoring abilities, which should be burning holes in the
back of nets for years to come.

Also adding into the mix are three local recruits, two from
national power Chaminade College Prep, who will be making names for
themselves as standouts in the very near future.

Mo Benne and Alex Matteson, from Chaminade, join Vedad Ibisevic
of Roosevelt High, to solidify a youthful core of attackers for the
Billikens this year.

Notre Dame boasts three All-American recruits who they hope will
be able to put pressure in the Billiken defensive third and score
some goals–not an easy task.

Tuesday night, in their second exhibition game of the year
against the Southwest Missouri State Bears, the Bills fought back
from an early 1-0 deficit and with just under ten minutes remaining
and after a well executed transition from defense to offense
initiated by yet another freshman, Kyle Hopson, Peplinski beat his
man with the ball and thread it over to sophomore Cooper McKee who
then proceeded to lodge the ball in it’s rightful place in the back
of the SMSU net.

Wickart moved over from his normal spot at right defense to play
sweeper for the injured Gannon and, after their early lapse, they
buckled down and held the Bears scoreless for the remainder of the
game.

“I was pleased with the way we played tonight. SMSU is a good
team with a lot of skill and a lot of speed and we played them
tough the entire night. We looked very solid tonight and we will
continue to get better as we get back our two national team players
(Grazier and DiRaimondo) and Gannon and are able to plug them back
into our lineup,” said Coach Dan Donigan.

The freshman had their coming out party, last Friday night,
against Loyola-Chicago. The Bills won the game 4-3, and all four
goals were scored by freshmen–two by John.

Peplinski and Ibisevic powered the other two goals in for the
Bills, which were all scored in the first half, giving them a 4-1
lead at halftime. They were then able to weather a pair of
second-half goals by the Ramblers and come away with the victory in
their first outing of the season, and showing early on that despite
the loss of a lot of key players from last year’s team, they seem
more than capable of picking up their winning ways again.