By Jake Fischer, News Staff
As the Northeastern athletics department transitions from the winter sports season into the spring season, the men’s soccer team is already preparing for the impending fall campaign. Wednesday, longtime head coach Brian Ainscough announced that the program will add seven incoming freshman to the Fall 2014 roster. The recruiting class includes three forwards, two midfielders and two goalies. Leo Lehto, Ackim Mpofu, Frantzdy Pierrot, Oliver Roberts, Harry Swartz, Jonathan Thuresson and Wes Turner will be joining the Huskies at Parsons Field next season.
Of the seven incoming freshman, three hail from Massachusetts. Peirrot is a product of Melrose, Swartz will grew up in Needham and Turner is from Brookline. Peirrot is a player Ainscough says he envisions filling the void Don Anding held on the 2012 Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) championship team, a role the coach struggled to find a player for this past season.
“Frantzdy is the type of center forward who is a big target and is very athletic,” Ainscough said in a release on GoNU.com. “We missed Don Anding last year and we had a few more smaller forwards, but this guy here is a real physical presence and at college is going to be a real handful.”
Ainscough also says Swartz, a silver medalist for the United States in the Pan-American Games in 2012, should add a new dynamic to Northeastern’s offensive attack.
“As a coach you can never have enough forwards, and this year we have another local player in Harry who played in the Boston Academy and was one of the top goals scorers last season,” Ainscough said in the release. “I don’t want to say he has Don Anding pace, but he’s not far off. He has top speed, and to go with that he’s running the same in the first minute of the game as he is in the 90th..”
Turner will arrive on campus after excelling at Newton North High School where he played two seasons before joining the New England Revolution Development Academy from 2012-14. Turner could help replace graduating senior Dante Marini.
“Wes played with the New England Revolution for the last four years or so in the academy league and was used in different positions, but typically I think his best spot is out on the wing, either right or left midfield,” Ainscough said. “As he goes along in college he is going to give us a lot of depth in the outside midfield position and were happy to have him.”
The incoming class also includes three international players. Lehto played for Avon Old Farms in Connecticut for three seasons, but he is a native of Finland.
“Leo is another midfielder who gives us a lot of depth in that area,” Ainscough said in the release. “He’s a very technical player who played at a good level in Finland and is someone who flew under the radar.”
Mpofu is a native of Zimbabwe but also played several seasons in the area at Cushing Academy in Ashburnham. The 5-foot-9-inch forward has represented Zimbabwe at the Under-15 Olympics and also for the Under-17 Squad, as well.
“He has only been over in the United States for a couple of years,” Ainscough said of Mpofu in the release. “After checking out his background of where he has played, we think he’s really going to be a terrific four-year player for us right out the gate.”
Thuresson is a goalkeeper who joins the Huskies from Sweden after playing for Örebro Sportklubb’s Under-19 team.
“Jonathan is coming from a really good program in Sweden and I think he will give us really good depth and will challenge our current goalkeepers right out the gate,” Ainscough said in the release. “He is [6-foot-3-inches] and has all the tools and the level that he has played at shows us that he has really good pedigree.”
Finally, Roberts joins the program from Massapequa, N.Y. after playing for the United States Soccer Federation Development Academy.
“His team went to the National Championship which shows us he was at one of the top teams in the country last year and he was one of the best goalkeepers coming out of it,” Ainscough said in the release. “So now we think we have four really quality goalkeepers that are going to make it difficult for me to make a choice as we go forward in the goalkeeping spot.”
These seven freshmen will join a battle-tested team full of experience returning players from last season and should be a legitimate threat to claim the 2014 CAA title.
