BY BECKY TERLESKI
Staff Writer

The boys soccer team has had more than its share of ups and downs this year.

 “It’s been a roller coaster ride for us this year as we beat good teams and lost to others,” junior outside midfielder Belmo Nurkic said.

The team got off to a 6-6-2 start this year, Coach Adam Obranovich’s second season at the helm. They had one big loss, which was to South Park.

“It was a tough loss, but the guys rebounded and took the defending champions, Canon Mac, to overtime the next week, only to lose on a very controversial call at the end,” Obranovich said.

On Sept. 21 they lost to Bethel Park by a score of 4-1, which was not indicative of how the game went, Obranovich said. Since then, the team has made changes to the lineup in hopes to rebound.

“A positive from that is that you never want to reach the peak of your performance too early in the season because you have nowhere to go but down,” Obranovich said.

One of the biggest challenges the team faces is communication while on the field. There are a large number of new freshman players on the team who have a “completely different chemistry,” Obranovich said.

“They’re learning well from the team and hopefully we’ll be good next year,” junior striker Austin Vertullo said about the freshmen.

Injuries also surprised the team when goalie Brandon Thompson broke his finger. Nurkic took to the net for three weeks to fill in for Thompson as goalie.

“Belmo did everything we could ask for and exceeded our expectations tremendously,” Obranovich said.

“The return of Brandon really helps since the team is more comfortable with him in the position of goalie,” Nurkic said.

“We need to work on finishing games with all of our effort, since we tend to slow down at the end,” Vertullo said.

The most difficult team for Baldwin to face is Mt. Lebanon. They have been rivals for nearly 10 years.

“Mt. Lebanon’s record is not the best and does not always show how they actually play, but they give us the rival factor,” Nurkic said.