BEREA, Ohio – The Baldwin Wallace University men's soccer team is set to kickoff the 2025 season and will be led by longtime head coach Reid Ayers who is in his 24th year as head coach.
Coach Ayers' squad comes into the year returning nine Academic All-Ohio Athletic Conference honorees from a team that finished its most recent campaign 7-8-5 and a conference record of 2-5-2. The Yellow Jackets were picked to finish seventh in the Ohio Athletic Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll.
"This is a fun group to work with; they bring a great attitude to the training field every day and have the right mindset to continue to get better. Counting on building on the momentum from the end of last fall and this spring," - Coach Ayers said.
BW is led by a duo of forwards that include seniors Max Yakym (Parma/Normandy) and Owen Reyes (North Olmsted) who each scored five goals for the Yellow Jackets in 2024. Yakym appeared in 18 games and started six of them. He also led the team in points with 11, one clear of Reyes, who had 10. Reyes appeared in 19 games last season and tallied 23 shots on goal for 2024.
The other player on the team that had multiple goals and multiple assists last season was Academic All-OAC senior Matthew Skladny (Cleveland/St. Edward). He had two goals and four assists for the Brown and Gold last season and will be a spotlight of the Yellow Jackets' success in 2025.
"Our focus has been on consistency not only from game to game but moments within the game; this group has to take advantage of moments when they are carrying the game and survive times when they are not," - Coach Ayers noted.
Aidan O'Neill (Middleburg Heights/Berea Midpark) leads the Yellow Jackets' returnees as far as time spent playing on the field goes. The senior was a part of 16 games and made 15 starts all of last season, playing 1312 minutes and averaging 82 minutes per game. He played 90 minutes on eight different occasions last season and had two assists.
On defense, BW will be led by O'Neill, and sophomore Brady Brown (Muskegon, Mich./Fruitport). Brown appeared in 14 games last season and started eight of them, in which he took five shots on goal.
Among the other players that BW returns for the 2025 season are Robbie Rochford (Fairlawn/Copley), Cimi Halilaj (Westlake), Ben McCauley (Tallmadge), and Mike Kane (Kent/Hudson).
Rochford played 19 games and notched 1271 minutes of action, tallying one assist and taking seven shots on goal. Halilaj played in 14 games and scored three goals. He also had six points and took seven shots on goal. McCauley played in 12 games and started 11 of them. He went on to finish 2024 with two assists to help get the offense on foot. Lastly, of this group, Kane appeared in 19 games and starting in 10 of these occurrences. He had two goals and one assist, making him one of eight players with at least a goal and an assist a season ago.
Baldwin Wallace returns two goalkeepers who made huge contributions to the team the last go around. Playing a combined 1,737 minutes, Diego Teran (Exton, Pa./Henderson) and Seth Warrick (Avon) are both entering their junior year with the Yellow Jackets. Teran got the better of the playing time. With 944 minutes played. He recorded 40 saves, a G.A.A of 1.05, and a 5-5-1 win and loss record in 11 matches played. Warrick played and started nine games in the 2024 campaign and he tallied 31 saves, a 1.60 G.A.A and a 2-3-4 win and loss mark.
"This is a very close knit group and that culture will be a massive asset for us on the field. With the quality of players on the ball we have, it should be a fun team to watch and a team that should be very successful this season," - Coach Ayers mentioned.
The Yellow Jackets' 2025 season will start on Friday August 29 in Erie, Pa. when they battle Carnegie Mellon (Pa.) University in the Herb Lauffer Memorial Tournament at Behrend Stadium at 6:30 p.m.
