Seton Hill men's soccer team believes it has pieces in place to contend for PSAC title

Dilveer Chaggar owes a lot to former Seton Hill men’s soccer coach Dan McCarty. McCarty, who headed the program from its inception in 2002 until the spring of 2022, brought Chaggar in as a player and later made him assistant coach.

McCarty built Seton Hill into a perennial playoff team in the PSAC and exited with 140 career wins.

It was a solid foundation on which to build, and now Chaggar, in his fourth year as head coach, aims to take the next step. Coming off a 10-5-4 mark that included 5-2-3 in the PSAC, the Griffins will settle for nothing less than a berth in the conference title game.

The bulk of the 2024 roster returns, and those players carry the bitterness of a season they believe ended too soon.

“We somewhat threw away the playoff game,” Chaggar said, referring to a 1-0 loss to Slippery Rock in the PSAC quarterfinals. “There were some things we could have done as coaches, and the players show … somewhat of a regret of, it was in our hands, and we just didn’t take it.”

One of the notable losses was striker Nils Heinrich, who transferred to Cal State Bakersfield after leading the Griffins with eight goals. But plenty of firepower returns with senior Julian Marker (7 goals), junior Vasilis Christodoulou (5) and James Aubrey (2 goals, 9 assists).

All three earned all-PSAC honors last year, Marker the first team and Christodoulou and Aubrey second team.

Aubrey, whose nine assists tied Heinrich for the team lead, will move from a wing to play more down the middle in the final third. Plus, Chaggar said, the incoming class of freshmen has plenty of speed to add to the wings.

“I think this year we have the pieces in place to play quite an attractive, technical, attacking style of football,” Chaggar said. “It’s not just going to be entertaining for the fans, but I think the players this year … there’s going to be a high motivation to play the way we’re going to play.

“It’s risky, but if we get it right, there’s going to be high rewards.”

Defensively, the Griffins are anchored by a pair of sophomore center backs: Ron Klinger and Esteban Moreira. Klinger was an all-PSAC second-team selection.

“Ron and Esteban are two of our best players on the team,” said senior defender Joe Lemansky (Laurel Highlands). “The biggest thing about both those defenders and having them at center back is their composure on the ball and just how good they are at keeping the ball and having an IQ for the game.”

Those two will take some heat off transfer keeper Jannik Reiss, who spent his first two collegiate seasons at the University of Saint Francis, an NAIA school in Indiana.

Reiss and a few other new players will be important to the Griffins’ cause. But Chaggar said there is another newer addition who might be the biggest difference-maker: second-year assistant coach Luca Campos.

A Center (now Central Valley) grad who played collegiately at Robert Morris, Campos brought a wealth of Division I experience to Greensburg. Besides being a D-I player, Campos has coaching experience at LIU and, most recently, Florida International. Chaggar credits Campos for “professionalizing” the program.

All of it adds up to a wealth of optimism for the 2025 season.

“I think a realistic goal is to make a (PSAC) final,” Chaggar said. “Things are really starting to fall into place.”

Added Lemansky: “This year I think the ambition with the team is a lot higher. We really want to get over the hump, we really want to make a difference and I really feel like we have the tools to do so.”