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Bulls, Houapeu pacing explosive soccer offense
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Andrew Bulls was named NSCAA Player of the Week.
During one second half sequence in UMBC soccer’s 6-0 win over St. Joseph’s, junior forward Levi Houapeu took a feed from sophomore forward Andrew Bulls and chipped in his second goal of the game.
Shortly after Houapeu’s goal clinched the first multi-score game of his collegiate career, he repaid his teammate by driving down the right side of the field, centering the ball and assisting Bulls, who scored his second goal of the game.
In a span of 21 seconds, the Retriever forwards had taken a comfortable 2-0 lead and turned it into a 4-0 blowout.
“Unselfishness makes the job so much easier for me,” Houapeu said of his suddenly dynamic relationship with his sophomore teammate. “Every time he [Bulls] has the ball, he’s looking for me.
“It makes my job easier.”
Bulls (five goals, four assists) and Houapeu (four goals, three assists) have sparked an early-season offensive explosion for UMBC soccer, which now sits at 3-0. The team hosts the adidas Kick-off Classic Thursday and Saturday at UMBC Stadium.
“Me and Levi complement each other,” Bulls said, fresh off being named the National Soccer Coaches Association of America's National Player of the week. “What I lack he has, what he lacks I have. He’s got a great pace.”
Bulls said Houapeu’s game is predicated on his speed and willingness to take on defenders. As for Bulls’ game?
“I like to take a lot of shots,” he said with a grin.
The chemistry between Bulls and Houapeu has shone through in 2009, but 2008 was a different story.
Though Bulls was an effective striker for the Retriever offense, scoring eight goals in 2008 to lead the team, Houapeu struggled through a left ankle injury and tallied only one goal and one assist in 17 games.
The injury, UMBC soccer coach Pete Caringi said, is to blame for the former America East All-Rookie team member’s least effective collegiate season.
“He [Houapeu] had a bad year for his standards,” Caringi said, adding that the forward showed in his freshman season that he had “all the potential in the world.”
Houapeu said that not only is he healthy, but his fitness has improved after playing throughout the summer. The junior spent June and July playing for the D.C. United Super-20 team in the United Soccer League’s Super Y-League. He led the squad in goals scored, a performance that he said helped his confidence coming off a rough 2008.
While Houapeu had something to prove after a down year, Bulls is continuing on the track that made him one of the top freshman scorers in the America East Conference in 2008.
But Bulls expects more of himself this year. In three games he’s already tallied more than half his goal total from a season ago.
“Last year was a bit of an intro,” he said, explaining how he feels more comfortable this season. “Not just to soccer, just to the whole college life in general.”
Bulls also expects more of his team, which he says fell into the trap last year of overlooking some contests. After a disappointing year in which the team earned a 6-9-2 record– which led to UMBC being voted to finish last in the America East Conference Coaches Poll – Bulls and Caringi agree that the team will take this season one game at a time.
“It’s the first time we’ve ever been picked last,” Caringi said. “We have to prove ourselves.”
According to the coach, his young strikers are already doing so.
“They’re on fire,” said the 19th-year UMBC coach. “They’re playing as well together as any group I’ve had.”
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