Ragin' Cajun Positional Preview Part 4: Forwards

With the 2017 season upcoming Ragincajuns.com will be doing a positional preview both this and next week. For this week, the midfielders and forwards will be spotlighted.

LAFAYETTE – Defense might win championships, but to get there the goals need to be scored by aggressive talented forwards, Louisiana's women's soccer team will be looking to tickle the net over and over during the 2017 season on their way to a possible championship.

Louisiana head coach Scot Wieland has three key seniors returning this season, along with plenty of talented women to choose from for his starting 11 to provide the Ragin' Cajuns exactly what they're looking for in the final third.

"We're looking for composure and good decision making in our final third," said Wieland. "But most of all we want our forwards to be dangerous, period."

One of the three returning seniors, is Ashleigh Cade, her 32 shots last season were third on the team, and her 11 assists lead the team last season bringing her career totals at Louisiana to 80 shots, 17 assists and six goals over three seasons with 3,470 minutes logged.

"Because I wasn't aggressive enough, I played some defense in previous seasons," said Cade. "But that helped me understand how defenders might be thinking when I attack them and it allowed me to see how things unfold viewing the game from the back."

Cade isn't the only senior coming back with quality and experience from previous squads.

The two other key seniors returning are Denice Emokpae and Kimberly Grasso each suffered injuries that forced them to sit out the 2016 campaign. But they each return this season ready to bring a dangerous mentality to the Cajun final third, while they look to make up for the missed season.

"It defiantly wasn't easy for me, not walking for a couple of weeks," said Emokpae. "But the journey was made easier since I had my teammates to help me go through it.

"And now that I'm healthy just being out on the field even if it's only for five minutes is great. After everything, I'm just so grateful for the opportunity since not everyone gets a chance to be a college athlete."

Before suffering her injury Emokpae had cracked the starting lineup during her sophomore season in 2015. She started in seven games and ripped off six shots, but her coming out party was during the 2014 season where she scored four times on 12 shots putting together a two-year total of 1,033 minutes for the Cajuns.

"On the field I've learned the that you can be dangerous by just setting people up to score and you don't have to always be the one to score," said Emokpae. "Setting up my teammates is just as productive as scoring."

Grasso's return for the season means the return of an experienced goal scorer with 10 goals over three seasons to her name, with five each coming in both her sophomore and junior seasons.

"I'm super excited to be back from my injury," said Grasso.

"Being hurt last year and watching all my roommates and teammates traveling made it hard. But I learned a lot by watching from the sidelines. It brought me back to how I felt when I started playing soccer, and I'm out there just having fun again."

She also had a plethora of starts during her three season before injury, starting a total of 47 games while logging over 4,100 minutes and ripping 114 shots, almost half of which were on goal.

"Being a forward means that our job is to score," said Grasso. "You see how things build up, the team works so hard to get it up to us, so when we get it, aggressiveness towards the goal with a do or die mentality fighting to get it in to goal is key to our success."

"Getting Emokpae and Grasso back from injury is great, and having Cade there along with those two for the younger players to view as the model of work ethic that we're looking for is extremely important for our success.

"I'd love to see a good balance from all three of them. Neither one of them needs to carry the load, and I think they understand that, so if we get a good balance of attack from all three it would be great for us."

Louisiana's three returning seniors, are more than just hungry they're battle tested and aggressive, "we can't just be a 90-minute team," said Cade.

"We have to enter the game with the mentally of being a 110-minute team. Even if we don't play the extra period we need to enter the game putting forth 110 minutes of effort, which this team is capable of."

That mentality is exactly what coach Wieland is looking for and what the Cajuns need to be dangerous in the final third through the entire 2017 season.

"I feel that if we play the way that we can, I think that this team is good enough that we can win the conference this season," said Emokpae.

Ragin' Cajun Positional Preview Part 4: Forwards

Players Mentioned

Ashleigh Cade

Denice Emokpae

Kimberly Grasso

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