After celebrating a berth into the conference tournament on Saturday, the reigning GSAC champions will get to celebrate a little more on Wednesday, after learning that two of their players have been named to the All-Golden State Athletic Conference team in 2021.
Samuel Tuscano has been named to the All-GSAC team for the second-consecutive season, while Kevin Smith Jr. has been named to the All-Conference team for the first time in his collegiate career. Coincidentally, both Tuscano and Smith are products of San Clemente High School.
“These awards are usually an accumulation of the group as a whole,” said Westmont head coach Dave Wolf. “I think both of these guys would be the first to tell you that this kind of recognition doesn’t come without the group’s work as a unit.”
For Tuscano, the senior midfielder has been a workhorse for the Warriors, as he heads into the GSAC Tournament with 1,015 minutes under his belt in 13 games. Tuscano is the only member of the club that has eclipsed 1,000 minutes this season.
“Durability isn’t usually the first thing that comes to mind when you’re talking about gifted attacking players,” noted Wolf, “but for Sam, it’s been one of the great foundations of his game. He plays under a lot of pressure each and every game, and some of that is the psychological aspect of being your team’s go-to guy.
“On top of that, he’s dealt with the pressure of tight marking, getting kicked and bruised, and ultimately shouldering that burden of what it means to be at the center of a match.”
Tuscano leads Westmont with 12 points this season, spreading out his productivity with four goals and a team-high four assists. Tuscano has bookended his season with perhaps his most memorable performances, as he scored a 93rd minute golden goal on opening night in Claremont, and tallied three assists this past Saturday in Rocklin, helping the club secure a postseason berth.
As Tuscano prepares for his final postseason run as a Warrior, he currently has 18 career goals and 8 career assists, giving him 44 points in his collegiate career.
“Last match was a really good example of how far his game has come,” said Wolf. “He teed a handful of guys up last game, and Kevin was one of them. Sam can be an excellent provider as well as an excellent finisher.
“With a lot of players, you can pick one or the other without necessarily having a knack for both. Sam is the rare player with the ability to excel at both providing and scoring.”
For Smith, his Westmont career has been anything but linear after arriving on campus in 2018. During his freshman season, Smith appeared in 13 games, tallying 783 minutes on the Warriors backline. Then, after a year of absence in 2019, Smith briefly returned last season, appearing in just two minutes during the club’s season opener.
After two lost seasons, Smith returned to Westmont for a memorable senior year, one in which he appeared in 12 of the club’s 13 regular season matches. He goes into the postseason with the third-most minutes under his belt of any Warrior, with a career-high 881.
Smith, one of the Warriors’ main center backs, has played a crucial role in guiding the Warriors back to the postseason with a strong defense that has allowed just 1.26 goals per game during the regular season.
“This honor for him is really the culmination of the long road back,” explained Wolf. “To get the validation at the end of the journey, I imagine, is a very special thing for him. He could have easily said ‘this just isn’t in the cards for me’, but he relentlessly worked to get to this point.
“Frankly, he was not in our plans at the beginning of our season as far as becoming a main part of our back four. We thought he had a chance to be an important part of the roster and make contributions, but ultimately he made it impossible to keep him off the field.”
For Wolf, having Smith play such a key role during his senior season has been all the more special, as Kevin’s father, Kevin Smith Sr. played on the coach’s first team at Westmont back in 1991.
“He’s the first player I’ve had at Westmont whose Dad I coached,” said a smiling Wolf. “I’ve had other Westmont players’ sons play for me, but none that I coached personally, so that definitely adds a special dimension to this.
“I have very fond memories of coaching Kevin Smith, Sr. and maintain a good relationship and friendship with him and his wife Lori to this day. The Smith family have been great partners for me through a lot of seasons of Westmont soccer, and I imagine this is a moment worth celebrating for them.”
The younger Smith put the finishing touches on his regular season this past Saturday, when he scored his first collegiate goal to help the Warriors clinch a postseason berth.
With that, the Warriors begin their quest in the GSAC Tournament this Saturday, when they travel to Atherton to take on the third-seeded Menlo Oaks in the tournament quarterfinals. Kickoff is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. and links to live stats and video are available on the Westmont Athletics website.
“Menlo is a very good team,” assured Wolf. “They were deserving of the result against us last week, and with that, it’s a rare opportunity to turn around and play an opponent immediately once again. We had some good stretches to look back on in that game.
“In some ways, we’ve been in a postseason mentality for ten days already. With our road trip last week, we had some must-win scenarios and when we needed to, we answered the call. Psychologically, I think our guys being in that mindset already is helping them be ready to go when the moment comes.”