Plum grad Tristan Ralph ramping up contributions for Pitt-Johnstown men’s soccer
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Tristan Ralph wasn’t the first player from the Plum boys soccer team’s Class of 2024 to be recruited by Pitt-Johnstown. Two of his teammates, Ethan Andrejeski and Tyler Yurisinec, had connected with UPJ coach Eric Kinsey during their junior years and set the wheels in motion to potentially join the Mountain Cats.
Ralph, meanwhile, still was debating his college future. Kinsey had seen Ralph play on the club circuit, but the two had yet to have any formal discussions.
Toward the end of Plum’s 2023 soccer season, Andrejeski, Yurisinec and Ralph were talking about where they planned on going to college. There wasn’t necessarily a plan to attend the same school and play for the same team, but once Ralph finally went to work out for Kinsey during the ensuing winter break, the course was set.
“As luck had it, (Kinsey) liked me, so we all said we would all go there to play soccer together,” Ralph said.
Ralph might have been a little late to the UPJ party, but his impact has grown as the season has progressed to the halfway point.
Through UPJ’s games of Oct. 5 — the Mountain Cats were 3-6 overall, 0-2 in the PSAC — he had appeared in all nine matches, making three starts. His five points — a goal and three assists — were tied for third on the team.
His first point came in his third match, an assist against Goldey-Beacom. Three matches later, against Central Penn, he made his first collegiate start and tallied his first goal in a 5-1 UPJ victory. It was his first of three consecutive starts.
Back out of the starting lineup against Seton Hill on Oct. 5, Ralph still provided an assist as a substitute. It was his second consecutive game with an assist.
“Early on in seasons, it’s figuring out how freshmen are going to adjust to the college game,” said Kinsey, in his 25th season at the helm of the Mountain Cats. “And we had some older guys who were returning starters who were in the lineup early on as we were starting to try to figure things out.
“As (Ralph) started getting some of those minutes earlier on in the season, it became pretty obvious that he was a guy who had to be on the field for us more than what he was getting.”
After playing more than 60 minutes only once through the first five matches, Ralph played between 61 and 83 in the next four.
He said getting used to the speed, and physical play of Division II soccer was the biggest adjustment. Now that he has a better handle on that, he has been trying to make better connections with his teammates.
A forward who plays on the wing, one of Ralph’s primary jobs is to make accurate crossing passes into the box to set up teammates who are crashing the net. While still a work in progress, Ralph said he is figuring out how to give the strikers better service.
“One of the biggest things is figuring out people’s patterns,” he said. “Now that we have a couple of games together, it’s way easier to know what each person is going to do when they have the ball or don’t have the ball.
“So you’re able to get passes to them without really knowing where they are at. But you just know that they’re going to be in that general area.”
But, Kinsey said, Ralph showed an aptitude for accurate crossing passes early on. Kinsey recalled one of UPJ’s early-season matches, when, he said, Ralph got five or six crosses into the box in a relatively short stint on the pitch.
He couldn’t recall any of the other players having any.
“This kid never stops working,” Kinsey said, “whether it’s in training, whether it’s on the field. So that’s critical at this level.”
Ralph continues to hone his skills. He said his dribbling has improved in the few months he has been on campus, and he is more confident now to take on players and use his speed like he had in high school. That, he said, should help him to look for his shots more.
He also is trying to make even quicker passes into the box. Rather than getting three or four touches on the ball before sending in the cross, he is trying to make his move with only two touches.
Through the increased work and minutes, Ralph said he is reaching that point many experienced players talk about: the point where the game starts moving in slow motion.
“This (recent) game against Lock Haven (on Oct. 2), it was definitely a huge difference from when I started,” he said. That match was the third of his three consecutive starts. “The game definitely feels like it moves slower. I’m able to read the game a lot easier.”
Of course, having his two friends close by has helped him adjust on and off the field.
Ralph said he has known Andrejeski and Yurisinec since club soccer when they were 10 years old.
Now the three share a suite at Pitt-Johnstown, and all three are in similar majors — Ralph said all are studying some sort of engineering — so they are able to help each other with studies as well.
“It’s great having faces in the dorm you recognize and (can) sit down and study with,” he said. “It definitely was a huge help.”
Now Ralph hopes to help UPJ earn some more victories. With perhaps a couple of exceptions, the Mountain Cats have been competitive in every match, but they need to figure out a way to turn more decisions in their favor.
Ralph is confident that can happen and hopes to be among those who contributes to more victories.
“I think we should be very competitive,” he said when talking about the stretch run. “We’ve had a couple slip away from us, but we’ve won plenty of games by a large margin, and we have the talent for sure to compete with every other team in this conference.”