The College of Staten Island Men's Soccer Team will kick off the 2025 regular season on Thursday against Assumption University in the first of back-to-back road matches to open the 2025 campaign. Entering his second season as head coach, Donato Curci has added plenty of new faces to the program with more than half of the team's roster made up of new recruits. After reaching the postseason in 2023, the the team saw their bid for a playoff spot come down to the final regular season game last year. On the road against UDC, the Dolphins fell 2-1 in their season finale to eliminate the team from playoff contention. The team also graduated six seniors at the conclusion of the 2024 season including several key contributors to the 2023 playoff squad. This leaves the team with plenty of scoring, facilitating, and defense to replace entering the upcoming season. However, this also opens the door for all of the new and returning Dolphins to step into a major role for a program with playoff aspirations in 2025. Now with a full year under the existing coaching staff and a large class of recruits joining the team, Men's Soccer enters the season as one of the most intriguing CSI Athletics programs.
MEN'S SOCCER - KEY RETURNERS
*800+ minutes or 10+ games played in 2024
DEFENSE
Anthony Benvenuto, Luis Ascencio Cueva & Bryan Garcia
Garcia played more minutes in 2023 than any other returning Dolphin and started 13 of the team's 15 games during his freshman season. Garcia appeared in all 15 games, Benvenuto appeared in 11, and Ascensio Cueva appeared in 10. Also a freshman last year, Benvenuro was a key part of the CSI lineup during the first two weeks of the season before missing nearly a month of action. He returned to the CSI lineup in mid-October and immediately re-assumed a major role, a role that could expand even further in year two. As for Ascencio Cueva, his junior season got off to a bit of a late start, and he was eased back into the CSI lineup. A player who logged over 1400 minutes as a freshman and nearly 1100 as a sophomore, he enters the upcoming season as the longest-tenured Dolphin.
MIDFIELD
Peterson Larose, Koray Arslan & Badr Mesrar
All three of CSI's returning midfielders logged over 870 minutes last year and contributed at least one point during the 2024 season. Larose was among the top freshman in the ECC finishing with four goals and an assist across appearances in all 15 games last season. Arslan, a fellow freshman, also appeared in 15 games and surpassed 1000 minutes last year registering an assist. Mesrar also tallied an assist and played nearly 900 minutes across 13 appearances, all starts.