OKLAHOMA CITY - The Oklahoma City men's soccer team opens its season on Tuesday, Aug. 20th against Bethany at Brian Harvey Field looking to bounce back on a season that was derailed by injury. 

Key Returners

SR - Marco Alongi
SR - Jordan Da Costa
SR - David Imbert
JR - Bernardo Duarte

Key Newcomers

Shay Prescod
Vittorio Di Carlo

Key Losses

Olly Clifford
Danilo Vilani

2023 Season Review

The story of the 2023 campaign was all about the health of the OCU squad as 19 of its 20 players started in at least one game and six of players were available in nine games or fewer. 

At the times the team was down to just 13 players on the active roster however despite that, head coach Billy Martin found a way to lead to the Stars to a SAC semifinal appearance the first time in Martin's time at the helm for Oklahoma City. 

Oklahoma City finished the regular season with a 7-7-3 record and held the seven seed in conference tournament where they had to make the trip to Siloam Springs to take on two-seeded John Brown. Having suffered a 6-4 defeat at Brian Harvey Field in October, Oklahoma City got its revenge by pitching a shutout over the Golden Eagles upsetting JBU thanks to a first half goal by Keita Kishino to win the match 1-0. 

The Stars season came to an end at the hands of Science & Arts in a 3-1 loss to the Drovers to finish the 2023 season with a record of 8-8-3.

2024 Roster Outlook

All but three return to the team from last year's roster as defender Olly Clifford and goalkeepers Danilo Vilani and Derrick Rodriguez graduated. 

OCU brings back second-team all-conference selection Marco Alongi as well Jordan Da Costa, Bernardo Duarte, David Imbert and Keita Kishino who all scored four goals or more a season ago. 

The Stars have a heavy set of seniors to make up their squad which include 11 seniors in Jayson Riley, James Kearns, Thomas Brulay, Marco Alongi, David Imbert, Jovanny Nsonga, Keita Kishino, Ruben Fahiya, Jordan Da Costa, Felipe Pansica and Alex Strain. 

The bulky group of upperclassmen continue with 12 juniors headlined by returners such as Bernardo Duarte, Sage Trevino, Nathan Fergeson and Ryan Moon. 

Brayden Souter remains the lone sophomore while Martin signed a class of seven freshman to join the Stars program.

Who to Watch

Marco Alongi

Alongi, the junior out of Varese, Italy arrived onto the OCU campus back in August as a transfer from Eastern Oklahoma State where he competed two seasons at the junior college level. 

In his junior season Alongi strung together a stellar year for the Stars as Alongi lead all members of the OCU squad with nine goals. Alongi broke out onto the scene back on Oct. 3 against Science & Arts by putting together a hat trick to help the leads the Stars on to a 3-2 victory over the Drovers. 

Alongi didn't stop there as he netted a pair of goals in two separate matches late in the regular season with two coming in a 6-4 loss to John Brown as well as two more coming in the 5-1 win over SAGU in the regular season finale. 

The Italian native finished the 2023 campaign with nine goals, two assists, 20 points, a .500 SOG% and two game winning goals while hauling in second team all-conference honors.

Jordan Da Costa

A starter in all 19 games last year, Da Costa came in behind Alongi with the second most goals scored of seven last season while dishing out four assists and leading the team with 25 shots on-goal.

Da Costa strung along four straight games with a goal from Sept. 2-14 helping Oklahoma City get out to a four game winning streak. 

David Imbert

Imbert finished the year with five goals and a team-high five assists in the 14 games he played in. 

After transferring in from Northeast Texas CC, Imbert flew on to the scene making a name for himself in the season-opener against Bethany notching a hat trick along with one assist in the 4-0 victory over the Swedes.

Imbert went on to collect a single season game-high two assists against Our Lady of the Lake before scoring in back-to-back games against Ottawa (Ariz.) and Oklahoma Panhandle State.

Meet the Coach

Billy Martin enters year five on the men's side after leading Oklahoma City to its firist semifinal in the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament since 2015. 

Martin returned to OCU after spending six season's at Rose State College leading the Raiders to a 74-35-2 mark with four National Junior College Athletic Association Region II regular-season championships and two regional tournament titles.

Prior to Rose State, Martin had been an assistant for 19 years for Brian Harvey after a successful playing career at OCU.

During Martin's tenure with Oklahoma City as an assistant, OCU produced 38 all-Americans, 56 NAIA scholar-athlete award winners and nine CoSIDA academic all-Americans on the women's side, and 24 all-Americans, 32 NAIA scholar-athlete award winners and four academic all-Americans among the men. Two Stars turned professional.

Martin contributed to OCU's women capturing 13 Sooner Athletic Conference championships with seven NAIA Championships appearances, double-digit win totals each year, two NAIA Championships semifinals appearances and an NAIA runner-up finish in 2001. During that span, OCU's men added seven conference championships and a trip to the NAIA Championships semifinals in 2008.

Martin plays an active role in developing youth talent on the club soccer level. Martin was named 2009 Oklahoma Soccer Association state boys competitive youth coach of the year. Martin led the OFC '92 to the Oklahoma Premier League championship in 2008. That team also won the state championship, finished runner-up in the Southwest Premier League and reached the quarterfinals of the regional tournament. Martin has been coaching Oklahoma Football Club and the Edmond Soccer Club since 2006.

He has been Oklahoma Olympic development program head coach since 2000 and assistant camp director for Brian Harvey's American Youth Soccer Camps since 1995. On the prep level, Martin has directed the Bishop McGuinness boys soccer program since 2012.

Martin played for Harvey's Oklahoma Heat teams in the U.S. Interregional Soccer League from 1993-96. A native of Grapevine, Texas, Martin provided OCU with six goals, five assists and 17 points from 1989-91. Martin aided OCU to two conference and District Nine championships. Martin played on OCU's first national-tournament squad in 1991.

Coming Up

Oklahoma City will begin its 2024 campaign on Tuesday, Aug. 20 at 7:30 p.m. against Bethany.

The Stars will play its first six of seven games at Brian Harvey Field through the month of September before jumping into conference play with back-to-back road games against Texas Wesleyan and Oklahoma Panhandle State.

Follow the Stars

Find all news, scores, highlights and updates on ocusports.com, Twitter (@ocustars), Instagram (@ocustars), Facebook (Oklahoma City University Stars) and Youtube (@ocustars). Catch every OCU home game and select away games on the SAC Sports Network.