NIAGARA FALLS — In soccer, it’s the goal scorers who get all the glory, but Tyler Bradley would be happy with a string of zeroes on the scoreboard.

The senior defender returns to a team that has an experienced back end and lots of youth up front.

“We’ve got three people from last year that stayed over on defense,” Bradley said. “So that’s going to help us out.”

Bradley is joined by seniors Brandon Claps and John Colavecchia on the Wolverine defense, and that experience is something the team’s head coach, Rob Augustino, looks to take advantage of.

With the departure of first team all-Niagara Frontier League defender Paul Morrison, Augustino hopes three veterans can play better together than one.

“They’re the only ones that are left, so we’re going to kind of reconfigure our defense around those three to help shore that up,” coach Augustino said.

“What we switched to is more of a flat four,” he continued, “which means that the two inside guys are going to help with the outside.”

Augustino plans to put Bradley on the outside, where his speed can be used to keep contain more effectively. It’s a spot where Bradley says he’s comfortable.

“My job is to sit back and protect,” Bradley said, “but if somebody gets through without a man on him then we have to be aggressive.”

“It’s more of a defensive system, but I thought what we needed this year with Paul leaving,” coach Augustino said. 

He said he’s confident in Bradley’s ability to keep the opponent’s strikers out of the box, something his goaltender is sure to appreciate.

“He’s one of our quicker players, and that’s why he was there,” he said. 

Augustino has seen what the all league-Morrison can do from the sweeper role, and he knows filling that position would be tough for just one player.

“He pretty much controlled that whole middle of the defense himself,” Augustino said. “They knew if they made a mistake that Paul was there to back him up.” 

The luxury of a shutdown defender is gone for the Wolverines, but his players still have high hopes for this season.

“I expect us to have a better year than last year,” Bradley said. “We don’t have as much speed as last year but we have more people that can control the ball and send it through.”

The Wolverines will be sending that ball forward to a lot of inexperienced players, but they have high hopes for a freshman to assume the role of striker. 

With the defensive formation requiring a midfielder to come down and help out, freshman Kyle Woods looks to be the main scorer for Niagara Falls. 

“He only played one year of JV last year and he was their leading scorer,” coach Augustino said.

Relying on defense and a freshman may not sound like the best situation, but the Wolverines still think they have what it takes to make some noise this year.

 “We definitely have what it takes,” Bradley said.