By Pete Conrad, JournalNews

ROSS — Bill Buelsing isn't asking for the moon. The Ross boys soccer coach mainly wants to prime the pump this year, to give his young players some varsity experience and maybe finish with a record somewhere around .500.

"We're just going to be very young and inexperienced in our starting lineup," said Buelsing, whose Rams will open their 2005 season tonight at Indian Hill.

"We're going to start two freshmen. We're young and we're small, so we're going to have to play fast."

Ross, which posted a 8-9-1 record overall and finished third in the Fort Ancient Valley Conference Cardinal Division a year ago, is expected to be pretty good on defense. The Rams have a fair group of center fullbacks, including junior Alex Heier and sophomore Matt Ross, both of whom played on the outside last year.

Up front, the Rams will rely on seniors Scott Herron and Brandon O'Brien. Herron is moving from the center to the outside.

In fact, a lot of players are doing a lot of moving.

Junior David Tracy, an all-Southwest Ohio goalie as a freshman who moved to center halfback last fall, is moving back to goalie.

"With our inexperience, he's back in the net and we're hoping he can save some of those shots we're going to need saved in order to win close games," Buelsing said.

Junior Brian Creelman is being moved from goalie to midfield, and he'll also sub on the front line.

Josh Andrews and J.R. Burns are two freshmen who are expected to contribute immediately.

"I'm really excited about Josh Andrews, who will play defense for us," Buelsing said. "J.R. will be on the front line, and he already has shown a lot of promise."

Other key players for the Rams include sophomores Pat Forrester and Matt McCandless and junior Andrew Meyer, all on the front line.

"We're hoping a couple of the kids step up to play halfback for us," Buelsing said. "I'm putting all my cards on my defense and on my forwards."

The Ross coach said he expects Turpin to be the favorite to win the FAVC Cardinal Division, though he added that Northwest is an up-and-coming team and Wilmington also can be dangerous.

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