MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Faulkner Men's Soccer Reserves gets ready for a new endeavor in the 2024 season in the Collegiate Development League. The league features reserves squads from Mobile, Spring Hill, US Sports Academy and William Carey and will consist of home and away contests between each team.
Head Coach Gabriel de Queiroz is excited for the new scheduling and challenges for the reserves program. "I've always had the thought that they needed some kind of competition for a challenge instead of just playing regular games with no purpose. Having the league with a playoff setup and a championship will give the guys something to compete for and show the coaches and the rest of the team that they can compete and play at a good level against good teams that are in our region and some in our conference. It will be interesting to see this continue with the help from other schools and ADs and everybody being a part of that."
The Eagles are excited for their run to begin in the CDL, especially following a dominant 3-1 win over Enterprise State Sunday afternoon. "We had a meeting [Monday] morning. Scotty [Murray] and Renan [Diniz] are really excited about what they saw. We're still missing a few faces we'd like to see in action but right now it's looking good. It's been just 10 days of preseason but it was really good to see who is who and who needs to improve and keep working and who has a chance of eventually transitioning to varsity this season or the spring and set up the plans for these guys."
Jose Luis Chacon and
Pedro Mendoza each opened their Faulkner goal scoring accounts in the victory.
While the dates with US Sports Academy, a USCAA side from Daphne, Alabama, are still outstanding right now, the rest of the slate is set.
Faulkner hosts Spring Hill on August 26 at 2 p.m. to open the CDL season before welcoming Mobile September 4 at 2 p.m.
The schedule then features four straight matches away from home starting September 16 when the Eagles head to Spring Hill. After a week off, the Eagles will spend three straight Mondays in The Jungle, the home of the Rams. On Sept. 30 and Oct. 7, Faulkner will battle William Carey in neutral site games at 1:45 p.m. and then take on the host Mobile on Oct. 14 at noon.
"Having the schedule and the competition consistent now where you're playing a game at home and then in a few weeks you'll play those guys away it gives us consistency. We don't have to be chasing teams anywhere. We just go with the league and if we want to add one or two more games, we can just to give us a different experience but I think this league is going to be good."
The currently scheduled slate wraps up with a road trip to Thomasville, Ga. to take on the Night Hawks at 1 p.m in what hopefully will be a tune up game for the playoffs that the top four teams will compete in with the high seed hosting and the winners advancing to play for the championship.
