LOUISVILLE, Ky. — After a promising preseason, the Bellarmine University men's soccer team will begin a seven-game road stretch to begin the regular season at Cedarville and at Trevecca Nazarene.

Both opponents are members of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference. The Knights open the regular season at 7:30 p.m. (ET) Thursday at Cedarville before a 5 p.m. meeting Saturday at Trevecca Nazarene.

While Bellarmine went 9-0 at Owsley B. Frazier Stadium last season, the Knights were only 2-5-1 on the road. Starting against the Yellow Jackets and Trojans, Bellarmine will look to reverse its road results and immediately get its 2018 campaign headed in the right direction.

"It's going to be a very hard next four weeks on the road against the competition we see every weekend," said Bellarmine Coach Tim Chastonay, whose squad will play three nonconference matches and four Great Lakes Valley Conference contests on enemy territory before returning to Frazier Stadium. "We are trying our best to make sure these guys are ready for the road tests, but ultimately, they have to respond and perform. We will definitely find out about the mental and physical toughness of our players through this stretch."

Bellarmine went 2-1 in three exhibition matches. The Knights fell 2-1 to Division I Evansville, but they did take a 1-0 lead and outshot the host Aces 17-12. Bellarmine followed by posting consecutive 3-0 wins over DIII programs Hanover and Spalding at Frazier Stadium.

"Preseason has gone very well," Chastonay said. "I really like the team, but we are still very young, with only two seniors. The commitment level of the players in all areas has been good. Our play has been a bit inconsistent in our three exhibition games, which might be a sign of our youth. We've had some good stretches of play during all three games, but at times, we don't look as sharp." 

Junior forward Tomas Bernedo and sophomore midfielder Greg Fischer collected two goals and two assists each in the preseason. Sophomore midfielder/defender Jonas Skulstad, sophomore midfielder Micah Linscott and junior midfielder Gilio Aviles added one goal apiece. After losing a large crop of seniors, and with it being so early in the season, the various units of the Knights are expectedly in the process of gelling.

"In the attack, we are working with several new players, and they are still trying to find some chemistry together. I really like some of the options we have, but they will need time to figure out how to play together," Chastonay said. "Defensively, we have some really solid players. We have a lot of competition for spots going on in our backline, and our play has been up and down. I'm hoping these first few nonconference games will settle some of the competition and more defined roles will emerge."

Cedarville went 9-9-1 last season, including 7-6-1 in the G-MAC. The Yellow Jackets and Knights are not strangers, having met the last three seasons. Cedarville won 3-0 in 2015 and 3-2 in double overtime in 2016 before Bellarmine captured a 2-1 double-overtime win last year. Derek Braak is an All-Conference forward who amassed 11 goals in 14 games last season. He's back along with Bryce Childers, who was second on the team in goals with eight.

"Cedarville looks to be a solid team once again this year," Chastonay said. "They have beaten us two of the last three years, so our guys know they are in for a tough game. Brett (Faro) is a great coach and his teams always seem ready to play us."

Trevecca Nazarene finished 7-8-2 last season, including 7-6-1 in conference play. Like the Yellow Jackets, the Trojans' two leading goal scorers from last season, Ethan Keogh (nine) and Reed Coffman (seven), are back as is Nicolas Reinhard (five assists).

"Trevecca is a team we know very little about at this point, but we are expecting them to be very solid," Chastonay said. "With no information on the squad, we will have to be prepared to make adjustments and deal with how they attack and defend. This will be very much like a GLVC weekend. We will have very little time to prepare for game two, and our guys will need to be ready to play."
        
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