BERNE — The Berne-Knox-Westerlo boys’ soccer team will be hurt by a lack of depth and inexperience this season.

That lack of experienced players was evident as the Bulldogs were beaten, 8-0, by Schenectady Christian on Tuesday.
"We’re very young," said BKW Coach Jim Gillis. "We have 16 kids on the team and seven of them are sophomores and freshmen. I have two kids that have never played before. We’re going to struggle. We also have two kids hurt and that left me with three subs. And it shows when we go out and play."

Gillis is resigned to the fact that he is going to have low numbers all season — with no junior varsity team — and he is ready to play with what he’s got.
"Hopefully, we’ll go out and keep trying. The kids I have are the kids that came out. They work every day, and I hope good things will happen."

Three starters from last year’s team did not come out for the team this season.

The Bulldogs will struggle to score goals this season even more than last year.
"Last year, we scored 13 goals," Gillis said. "And one player had nine. I don’t have a single player that is going to score a lot of goals."

Peter Primiano took his nine goals when he graduated in June.
"He had speed and was able to stretch a defense," Gillis said. "I’m not starting a kid that has played forward. We don’t have the speed up top. Joey Conklin is playing center forward and he was my starting goalkeeper last year before he got hurt."

Rebuilding

The Bulldogs do have a solid defense returning.

Jayson Villeneuve returns with the potential to be an all-Western Athletic Conference player, Gillis said.

All-league player Bobby Patrick also returns to play stopper and Sam Emory also returns to play center midfield.

The defense will be anchored by sophomore goalie Greg Hannay.
"We need to mark people and do the little things like clearing balls," Gillis said. "That is costing us goals. We can’t afford to make mistakes in the back, because we can’t make up for them."

Alan Diamond and Greg Mulson also return and will play in the midfield mostly.
"We’re rebuilding," Gillis said. "We have five seniors and five returning starters back from a team that won five games."

Gillis said most of the players need to gain experience playing on the varsity level.
"I started three sophomores and had two on the bench," Gillis said. "I had freshmen playing. It’s hard for kids to make the jump from modified to varsity. They don’t get to see the ability of players on j.v. They dominated modified as freshmen but they are dominated as sophomores on varsity. They have not seen the speed. The game’s much quicker. I have to drill into their heads they have to work harder to play the game at a faster level."

But, with the lack of players and a couple injured, Gillis hasn’t been able to get good practice time out of his competitors.
"We’re working okay," he said. "But I haven’t overworked them. I’ve got so few bodies. Out of 16, two are hurt. Fourteen is pretty thin; it’s hard to go out and practice. The numbers are down and the kids get tired. It’s a Catch-22 thing."

Gillis hopes that the players don’t get discouraged during the season and stick with the program.
"We need to stay together as a team," Gillis said. "We are going to struggle for some wins.
"We lost three kids that started for me," he added. "They decided not to play. But I’m focused on the kids that decided to play and that will go out every day and play for 80 minutes. They can’t get discouraged. The kids wearing the uniform will hopefully go out and play hard and win games."

Gillis said the defense will be key as they will try to keep games close.
"We’ll try to stack the defense," the coach said. "We’ll compete and stay in games and go for a 1-0 or 2-1 win. I don’t see a team that can go out and put four or five balls in the back of the net on a regular basis."

But, Gillis sees a strong effort by his players can have positive benefits during the season and in the future.
"I’m hoping we come up with strong efforts as the season progresses," he said. "The seniors need to lead by example. They have to understand that, let’s play and the wins and losses will take care of themselves."