As the semester ends and the campus community prepares for summer vacation, 16 high school students will be preparing for their first collegiate preseason at Lafayette.
The men’s soccer program will be adding eight fresh faces to its roster, three of them homegrown talents. The women also nabbed eight recruits.
“This recruiting class brings a wealth of talent and skill to our program,” Dennis Bohn, the head coach of the men’s team, wrote in an email. “We have players who can contribute in various spots on the field. Players with different technical and physical attributes that will help strengthen our roster in many ways.”
First, Cameron Bohn, a forward from Easton, Pennsylvania and son of Dennis Bohn, arrives on campus after scoring the most goals in his high school’s history with 69. Also from the Lehigh Valley, midfielder Cade Maglione became his high school’s all-time leading goal and point scorer. Jackson Vajda, who hails from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, is a midfielder and defender who played a crucial role in his high school’s 2023 title-winning season.
Gabe Faust, a forward, comes to College Hill from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Faust competed in the vaunted MLS NEXT league while also collecting hardware at the high school level. Staying in the Garden State, Joseph Lee is a standout defender from Hasbrouck Heights. The final recruit from New Jersey is Anthony Durling, an outside back from Hamilton. He joins the Leopards after stellar high school and club careers.
Riley Martin is a forward from Oreland, Pennsylvania. He holds the record for the most goals scored in a single season at his high school with 34. Finally, defender and midfielder James Melnick joins the team from Conshohocken, Pennsylvania after a stellar high school career that saw him collect a variety of individual awards.
These eight rookies will look to contribute to the team’s successes after a season in which the Leopards reached the Patriot League final.
Mick Statham, the head coach of the women’s team, lauded his program’s eight new recruits.
“I’m really pleased with the quality of this class,” Statham wrote in an email. “They are very good players, excellent students and really good people. We try our very best to recruit the kind of student-athletes that can not only help us progress as a team on and off the field but also uphold the core values of being a student at Lafayette. We feel this class reflects exactly what we need and the spirit we need it in.”
First, defender Brooke Commins joins the Maroon and White from Warrington, Pennsylvania. Also from the Keystone State, Camryn Fitch is a defender from Fogelsville, Pennsylvania.
Next, defender Ava Fix joins the backline from St. Louis, Missouri. Fix is the program’s very first recruit from St. Louis. An international student-athlete, midfielder Jessica Giordanella is from Markham, Ontario.
The team also welcomed Emma Harmon, a midfielder from Bayville, New Jersey, and defender Nyla Kargbo arrives from Reston, Virginia.
From Hingham, Massachusetts, midfielder Ava Varholak joins the Leopards, while defender Giada Zaffanella is from Ellington, Connecticut. Zaffanella joins her sister, freshman midfielder Nadia Zaffanella, who was selected as the Patriot League Rookie of the Year this past season.