After an encouraging end to the 2024 season, head coach Jeremy Bonomo is carefully managing expectations with a squad that has witnessed significant turnover since last year’s campaign came to a close.
Picking up just one win from its first seven before finishing with a 3-1-4 record in its last eight games of 2024, including a stretch of six unbeaten contests that brought together the Huskies’ longest unbeaten run since 2012, Bonomo returns for his second year at the helm with a host of new faces on his roster.
After losing half of its players from last season’s squad, Northeastern returns 16 players alongside 12 additions. For Bonomo, building off of last season’s signs of promise requires setting realistic goals as the team grows into its full potential.
“We’ve got some young talent, there’s no doubt about that,” Bonomo said. Attributing last year’s slower start to the learning curve associated with getting to know a new coach, Bonomo previewed this season with a similar assessment, saying “I think you’re going to see a little bit of that this year as well, but for different reasons – new guys, young guys, fresh faces still trying to learn the system.”
The 2024 Huskies finished with a positive goal difference on the year, outscoring opponents 23-17 by year-end, but finding the back of the net proved challenging in the early stages of the season.
The team deposited just six goals in its opening ten games in front of a reliable back line that allowed less than a goal per game during the same stretch. NU also endured a stretch of five consecutive games without scoring a goal, and were held to a clean sheet on a total of seven separate occasions in 2024.
“It kind of took some time last year for everybody to fully grasp what we were doing here, but you can clearly see the first half and the second half looked very different,” said Tobias Jahn, Northeastern’s graduate student goalkeeper. “Personally, I’m really looking forward to carrying over that momentum we had last year, especially with the new guys.”
Bonomo added that while he expects another positive season, the team cannot be deterred by a slow start and should focus on hitting their stride earlier in the year to contest for a playoff spot.
If Bonomo’s team is to hit their stride earlier this time around, it will require leaning on some core returning pieces while integrating some younger faces in key positions.
Among the returners in 2025 are two members of last season’s reliable back line, senior defender Jaden Prado and sophomore defender Ethan Leary. With Prado and Leary leading returning players in minutes played last season, Northeastern’s rock-solid defense retains two core components.
One of six players to appear in all 16 contests in 2024, Prado led the Huskies with 15 starts and turned in 12 full 90-minute appearances. A dual-threat fullback, he tagged on three assists as a left back, offering an offensive edge to his consistent defensive performances.
Leary, his younger counterpart, enters his second season on the heels of a 2024 rookie campaign that saw him feature in 15 games, 14 of which he started. Having appeared in five of the Huskies’ six shutouts last year, Leary is expected to help anchor the back line again this season.
To help Northeastern put together a successful campaign, its more experienced players will play a key role in helping its new additions “catch up to speed,” as Jahn says.
“Coming into college, it’s a different level. You’re getting used to your team and the other team’s speed of play,” Jahn said. “It is a very particular environment. To be able to rely on those guys is going to be key.”
While Prado and Leary return to the squad, Northeastern’s back line lost some core defensive pieces during the offseason. Despite only losing one rostered defender – Jet Ulven, who did not make an appearance in 2024 – to graduation, three members of the back line departed to other schools by way of the transfer portal.
Thomas Vold and Mathias Hille each left after their sophomore seasons, with each defender racking up at least 30 collegiate appearances. Vold joined Duke University, which finds itself ranked No. 15 nationwide in this year’s United Soccer Coaches’ NCAA DI Top 25, and Hille left for Brown University. Fabrizio Cubeddu rounded out the departing defensive group, returning to Florida Atlantic University after starting all 28 of his Northeastern appearances.
Despite losing several key defensive pieces to the portal, Coach Bonomo’s squad bolstered its back line with an experienced transfer pickup of its own who could see meaningful minutes.
Rohin Kapila is a senior defender transferring from Marshall, the 2024 national runner-up. Kapila featured sparingly for the Thundering Herd in his sole season with the team, amassing 26 minutes across two games, but offers a sense of familiarity to Coach Bonomo after spending two seasons with him at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
During that span, Kapila appeared in 32 games, and was named to the Horizon League All-Tournament team as a sophomore when his team claimed the conference championship and qualified for the NCAA DI tournament for just the third time in program history.
While the outlook for the backline remains fairly positive, the Huskies’ defense will be missing a familiar face in goal come 2025.
After Jahn underwent season-ending surgery midway through last season, goalkeeper Colby Hegarty rose to the occasion. In 12 games, Hegarty posted a .793 save percentage – the 19th best in the nation – alongside a 1.00 GAA, good for 38th-best in the NCAA and the second-lowest in the conference.
With Hegarty graduating after the 2024 season, the attention returns to Jahn, who posted an .815 save percentage last season, for one last ride.
“I want to be the best goalkeeper possible, the best goalkeeper I can be to help the team out, to help the team achieve the goals and also my goals going forward. I’m not going to make it a secret; I want to be the best goalkeeper in the conference and also one of the best goalkeepers in the country to make the next step possible,” Jahn said.
But for Bonomo, the goal is not the only place where last season’s team will look different. After dealing with a slew of injuries during the offseason alongside the aforementioned roster changes, the 2025 Huskies will need to call on their youth to usher in a new era of Northeastern soccer.
“We got some guys that are getting baptism by fire,” Bonomo said. “The learning curve is getting shorter and shorter, and most of the returners are helping these guys out so it’s been nice to see the bonding on the field and off the field.”
Leaning on youth to grow the program in the coming years is no foreign concept to Bonomo, whose inaugural Northeastern team operated with Leary at the back and fellow rookie Ethan Kang playing a pivotal midfield role in 2024. Kang was recognized as a CAA All-Rookie Team selection, and returns for his sophomore season in Brookline with an honorable mention in the CAA Preseason Team.
Kang is just one key returner to the Northeastern midfield this season. Senior midfielder Kade Tepe appeared in 15 games last season, starting 11 contests and racking up five goal contributions. With three goals last season, his scoring accounts for just under 30% of the 11 goals returning players scored last year.
While Kang and Tepe will work to lead the midfield, several new faces will join the position group. Six newcomers are currently rostered as midfielders, accounting for half of the midfield corps.
Goalscoring will no doubt be of emphasis for the Huskies this year, who played to four 0-0 draws last season. After losing forward Sebastian Restrepo and his four goals in 2024 to graduation in the offseason, the 2025 forward group will hope to find its winning combination among two returners, one transfer and one freshman.
Senior forward Fraser Brown topped the Huskies’ scoring charts last year, netting five goals alongside one assist for a team-high 11 points. The New Zealand native appeared in all 16 games, 11 of which were starts, and helped Northeastern to a 2-1-2 record during games in which he scored. He returns as a reliable penalty taker, depositing all three of his efforts from the spot in 2024.
The forward group is rounded out by returning sophomore Tomas Sciarra, who recorded five points in 2024; Bryce Flowers, a sophomore transfer who turned in 48 minutes across three appearances at Penn State, and freshman Shai Saarony.
With 12 newcomers spread across all position groups, Northeastern also adds two new faces to the touchline. Coach Bonomo’s staff is bolstered by the additions of Jordan Koduah and John Manga, who are each assuming assistant coaching roles during the 2025 season.
Bonomo expressed his excitement to welcome some new faces to the staff, pointing to his assistants’ closer age gap with his players bringing in some more relatable figures for players to go to and learn from.
Both assistant coaches come to Brookline after playing careers of their own, with Koduah featuring for University of Hartford and University of Rhode Island and Manga crossing paths with Bonomo at University of Cincinnati before playing professionally with the Pittsburgh Riverhounds.
Koduah and Manga each deliver coaching experience as well. Koduah previously served as a player development coach with Oakwood Soccer Club in Connecticut, while Manga has previously coached Seacoast United and Georgetown College.
Personnel changes are not the only changes coming to Northeastern men’s soccer this season. New in 2025, the CAA has been split into a north division and a south division, each of which contains five teams. For Northeastern, this means the team will play eight conference matches, facing off against each team in its division once at home and once away.
To Bonomo, who preferred the old in-conference scheduling format, the change offers benefits and drawbacks. Bonomo acknowledged the amended schedule allows for less travel and related fatigue, while pointing out “anytime you have to play a team two times and potentially three times is tough.”
But before Coach Bonomo’s squad can direct its attention to conference play, the team will first open the season Thursday at home against Holy Cross.
“It doesn’t matter who’s on the field. We are expecting to give our best effort and win,” Bonomo said. “We’re going to get out there and execute and get it done.”
Chase Alexander is a writer and broadcaster with WRBB Sports. Check out his personal portfolio here and feel free to follow him on Linkedin and X (Twitter).