MORGANTOWN — The competition in goal is just one of several key decisions awaiting West Virginia men’s soccer coach Dan Stratford as the Mountaineers prepare to open the 2025 season.
Veteran goalkeeper Mac Bonnaire returns after a 13-2-6 record in 21 starts in 2024, with a .635 save percentage, allowing 1.09 goals per game. Sophomore Lorenzo Nunez, who served as the backup last year, is also back, while freshmen Toby Mawer and Chase Collins join the program.
“We feel like we have three high-level goalkeepers,” Stratford said. “It’s another really healthy race and a ruthless decision we’ll have to make. Seventeen days isn’t a lot of time, and those three exhibition games go quickly.”
Stratford knows managing a deep roster will be one of the biggest challenges in 2025.
The Mountaineers must replace 10 seniors and multiple transfers from last year’s roster that reached the NCAA Tournament’s second round. Still, a strong core returns from the 13-win team, including three players named to the Preseason All-Sun Belt Team.
“While there will be some new faces doing it, we have a lot of quality and depth this year,” said Stratford, who enters his sixth season as head coach. “That’ll be a management issue for us as a staff, but it’s a good problem to have.”
It’ll soon be known who will start between the posts, as the No. 16 Mountaineers host Manhattan at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.
The Jaspers, who went 5-8-3 last fall, are led by new head coach Tom Giovatto, hired July 10 after a successful run at St. Francis (Brooklyn).
“Often it’s my most stressful scout because it’s the most unknown,” Stratford said. “With Manhattan, we don’t have any game film from this year, and the difference between the two coaches can be vast. But Coach Giovatto has a proven track record with five NCAA Tournament appearances in eight years. We expect them to come in energized.”
WVU was picked second behind Marshall in the Sun Belt preseason coaches’ poll, and Stratford knows his team’s home-field advantage is an important factor.
The Mountaineers are unbeaten in their last 25 home matches, going 18-0-7 over the last two seasons. Under Stratford, WVU is 33-2-13 at home, including three undefeated seasons on home soil in years it qualified for the NCAA Tournament (2021, 2023, 2024).
“It doesn’t matter what the context is — when we’re here, we expect to win,” Stratford said. “A fast start is critical. In our best seasons, we’ve gone double digits without a loss, which gives you a margin for error later on. There’s little room for mistakes when you’re aspiring to not just make the NCAA Tournament, but to earn a high seed as well.”
Senior forward Marcus Caldeira, the conference’s Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, leads the line with Isaac Scheer and graduate defender Carlos Hernando joining him as all-conference selections in 2024.
Caldeira has scored 23 goals over the last two seasons and 28 in his career, ranking ninth all-time at WVU. Stratford believes his senior striker is positioned for a historic final campaign.
“He’s already one of the most decorated players in the program’s history,” Stratford said. “If we go on another formidable run, there may not be another Mountaineer with that level of output.”
Caldeira, drafted 20th overall by Minnesota United after the 2023 season, opted to remain at WVU. The decision gives him the chance to climb into the program’s top five career goal scorers.
“He knows his professional career is next,” Stratford said. “He’s pleased with what’s happening here and is driven to have a fantastic senior campaign.”
Scheer made an immediate impact as a freshman with three goals and five assists in 22 appearances (13 starts) in 2024. Hernando, a two-year starter after transferring from William Carey, was granted an extra season of eligibility through a recent NCAA ruling and will serve as captain in 2025.
“We feel terrific about the core group that’s back, but inevitably, we had 10 graduating seniors. A lot of those were big hitters for us when it came to minutes, so some of those will have to be replenished elsewhere,” Stratford said. “We’re pleased with the quality of business that we did in last December’s transfer portal. We knew there was going to be a lot of change, and we wanted to get ahead of it and see if we couldn’t get as much of the squad together for this spring, and we did well with that. In essence, there are only eight new faces this August.”
