HEADS UP: Princeton Day School boys’ soccer player Todd Devin heads the ball in a game last fall. Junior Devin’s skill set will be a big asset this fall for PDS. The Panthers open their 2023 season by playing at Lawrenceville School on September 8. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

With 12 seniors having departed from last season’s squad due to graduation, the Princeton Day School boys’ soccer team will have a radically different look this fall.

While PDS head coach Brian Thomsen will miss the program’s Class of 2023, he is looking forward to seeing the new faces seize opportunity.

“It is going to be exciting to see a lot of these guys grow because they have kind of been in the shadows the past couple of years,” said Thomsen who guided the Panthers to a 3-11-4 record in 2022 and a spot in the NJSIAA Non-Public B quarterfinals. “We had a huge class of seniors last year and the year before we had Milan Shah, John Ramos, and William Vazquez. It is going to be exciting to see these kids kind of mature, not only as soccer players but as leaders and young men.”

It will be exciting for PDS to be playing a full slate of Colonial Valley Conference games this fall as a new member of the league.

“From my perspective it is going to be a huge positive; when we play Pennington or we play Hun or we play Peddie, we are not getting any power points,” said Thomsen, whose team will start the 2023 campaign buy playing at the Lawrenceville School on September 8.

“My first year we ended up going to the state final and we had five away games on the way to that. I am excited for these guys. We have eight home games that I think are all winnable. We are going to play a lot of the big dogs like Princeton High School, Hopewell Valley, Notre Dame, Steinert, Robbinsville, and Allentown as our away games. It will be tough. It is a good year to have all of those other teams playing at home. It will push our guys to pick up some power points. We want to have a home game in states.”

The Panthers could be tough to score on with junior Oren Yakoby stepping into the starting role at goalie.

“We have a goalkeeper, Oren, waiting in the wings that we are really excited about,” said Thomsen. “He looks great, he is making the saves he needs to make.”

Thomsen believes the trio of senior Gyan Gautam, junior Todd Devin, and junior Penn von Zelowitz can make things happen at the offensive end.

“Up top, we have Gyan who is a senior captain, he scored a couple of goals last year and scored a couple of goals the year before,” said Thomsen.

“I think we are going to move Todd up a little bit and get him closer to the goal. He scored yesterday in our scrimmage off a free kick. We are expecting Penn to have some opportunities to score.”

Along the midfield, PDS will feature junior Hart Liu Nowakoski, sophomore Aiden Luciano, and junior Charlie Ewing.

“Hart is back and we have a transfer from Hopewell; Aiden, he will help in the midfield,” said Thomsen. “We have a kid that moved up from JV, Charlie, who will help in the midfield as well.”

Senior Yaseen Mousa figures to be a big force on the Panther back line.

“Towards the end of last year we started using him as a center back and outside back,” said Thomsen.

“He came out to the TCNJ ID Camp recently and I think he going to be a really good player at the next level as an outside back or a defender.”

In addition to Mousa, junior Max Schragger, junior Henry West, freshman Brady DeCore, and freshman Keegan Fullman will help the PDS defense hold the fort.

“Max and Henry will return on the back line,” said Thomsen “Brady will be a good role player for us and we are really excited about Keegan as well.”

With PDS having lost a number of close games last year, Thomsen is confident his squad can get over the hump in tight contests this fall.

“We have got a lot of kids; it is just going to be an interesting year of just seeing how it goes and not really set expectations to the point where these kids are feeling it,” said Thomsen. “I want them to enjoy the ride. One thing that me and BG (assistant coach Bonniwell Graham) talked a lot about this year is figuring out a system of play that helps the kids have the best opportunity to be on the other end of that. We went for it in a lot of games last year and I think we need to do a little more defending and be more compact as a group.”