Season Preview: Duquesne Men’s Soccer Hopes Its Collective Can Be Successful

Photo credit: Pittsburgh Soccer Now/Zachary Weiss

Throughout his tenure as Duquesne Men’s Soccer coach, Chase Brooks has maintained a simple directive.

Bend don’t break.

This was tested in a big way in an exhibition contest against Bucknell, a side which made it to the NCAA Tournament a season ago, led by former Pittsburgh Riverhounds coach Dave Brandt.

Duquesne was outclassed in nearly every way in the first 45 minutes, giving the ball away seemingly at will and that was when Brooks went to the locker room and tore into his team, reminding them of the philosophy and laying out a clear challenge, one all parties involved would say days later that it needed.

The Dukes responded by finding an equalizer in the second half.

“We felt the pressure from that opponent and knew they were good,” senior defender/midfielder Ashton Jell recalled. “I feel like it was important for us to feel that pressure and also to feel within ourselves that we knew we could have done better. That’s why we do preseason.”

Coach– Chase Brooks: 13^th season

Last year– Duquesne was 11-4-3 in 2024, its third time in the past four seasons achieving a double-figure win totals. The Dukes posted an 8-1-1 record at Rooney Field. Unfortunately for Duquesne its lone home setback all season was in the Atlantic 10 Championships, a 3-0 loss to Fordham a week after the teams previously met.

They’ll miss– Maxi Hopfer (seven goals/19 points), Ali Nasser (15 games/four points), Jack Rhead (16 games/four points), Christoffer Vie Angell (16 games/one goal), Jesper Moksnes (played all 1,530 minutes/two points)

Impact returners– Jaxon Ervin (three goals/10 points), Dakota Jonke (two goals/six points), Ashton Jell (two goals/five points), Bendix Bennetzen (started all 17 games/four points), Blaize Hardy (six points)

Newcomers– GK Aaron Meono (Akron transfer), Sergios Feneridis (Virginia Tech transfer), Hakon Dagur Matthiasson (freshman), Mathieu Brick (Clemson transfer), Miles Imparato (Indiana transfer), Tyler Kato (Air Force transfer), Diego Chavez (Colorado Mesa transfer), Owen Gall (freshman), Alex Posada (freshman), Adrian Rosario (freshman), Cody Da (Macalester College transfer)

Reason to be optimistic:

Communication in soccer is incredibly pivotal, everyone has to be on point in order to advance the ball down field, with the end goal being placing the ball in the back of the net.

Given that Duquesne has a lot of newness, from literal players to returners taking on bigger roles, the communication has been a work in progress that improved throughout the three exhibitions.

“(It is) something we’ve really been working on as a team,” senior midfielder Grant McIntosh explained. “As a group we’re starting to learn that voice is really important in this. We can build on it as a group, just talking, pressing triggers really helps us.”

An encouraging sign came in the final exhibition contest against Cleveland State. Jell was encouraging his team to move the ball forward on the attack and his dialogue became contagious.

This led to a penalty kick Dakota Jonke scored for the evening’s lone goal. After the score, Duquesne pressed harder, talk was more consistent, and it helped wrap up a three-game stretch in which the Dukes won twice and earned a draw.

“I’m stepping into a leadership role with this group, and I want to make sure guys know what they are doing,” explained Jell. “I want to encourage guys when they’re doing well and be aware of what’s going on. I want to keep them going.”

X-Factor:

Brooks admits Duquesne is in a different position than it has been in recent years. He concedes this Dukes squad does not have that “special game changer” that was present in recent years. Of course, this is a reference to Maxi Hopfer and even someone such as an Ask Ekeland among others as well.

Now that is taken by what Brooks calls a collective. This group will win and lose together and there will be some figuring out.

That begins with determining a starting 11 for Thursday’s season opener against Seton Hill, though as always, Brooks will remind everyone they never know when their number will be called.

During the three exhibition games, so many had opportunities to earn time, including each of the three goalkeepers in returner Sam Coss and newcomers Diego Chavez and Aaron Meono.

Each got approximately 30 minutes a contest with the order never being the same.

Brooks did expand a bit on these thoughts that it will be finding those right pieces and, in some cases, while someone may be better than someone else, the decision will be dictated by the bigger picture and how someone fits within the collective.

“We’ve always been pretty honest and up front, it’s always the best policy, to let the guys know not to worry too much about roles and responsibilities at the moment as far as who is in the 11 or not,” Brooks informed. “I think our guys understand that it is about putting the best 11 out there and kind of who fits where, which new guys are ready to step up and contribute, which returners are ready for a bigger role and kind of go from there. Some may not be happy and that’s totally acceptable but that’s what going to drive them. We have a really good database to pull from to prepare for Thursday.”

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