Lancers load up on new soccer talent

Head coach Ryan Mendonca has high aspirations for the University of Windsor Lancers men’s soccer team.

The club reached the OUA playoffs last year and came to within an overtime goal of a quarter-final upset, but Mendonca wants his program to be able to consistently battle with the league’s best.

On Tuesday, Mendonca announced his recruiting class for the 2020-21 season with an eye on accomplishing that goal.

“I’ve learned a lot over the last two years of what we need in order to get where we want to be,” Mendonca said. “We need players that give to teammates and give to the program and grind through it.”

Locally, midfielder Evan Vacratsis and cousin Otis Vacratsis, who can play midfield or move to the attack, have agreed to join the program along with defender Domenic Campana, Armaan Aujla, who can play in the midfield or at the back, attacker Robert Alionte, who can also play in the midfield, and attacker Giovanni Magliaro, who is from Chatham and played locally for FC Nationals.

Rounding out Mendonca’s 12man recruiting class is defender Robert Oates from Chelsea, Mich., midfielder Anthony Oma-djebah from Mississauga, defender Robbie Oates from Chelsea, goalkeeper Christian Lebeuf from Oakville, winger Wazi Kazhila from Lindsay, and Scarborough’s Kishon Cornwall, who will play outside.

“The class ended up bigger because we didn’t have many misses,” Mendonca said. “When we went to guys, we didn’t get many guys saying no.”

Kennedy high school products, the Vacratsis cousins played club ball in Michigan with Vardar.

“For Otis, we actually both had NCAA offers from different universities and then I actually committed before he did,” 18-year-old Evan Vacratsis said. “It will be fun to play with him and Robbie Oates, both of who were my teammates for four years. It’s good to play with people who you’re in sync with.”

The chance to stay home and try to build the Lancers’ program is what kept 18-year-old Otis Vacratsis in Windsor.

“Ryan is building a program and culture that will be focused on winning and that is something I want to be part of,” he said.

Mendonca believes the cousins could have an immediate impact along with Oates and Kazhila.

Mendonca says he won’t lose a player to graduation for the next two years and just three the following season.

“We have a chance to build a culture,” Mendonca said.