USL Feature

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

The hallmark of a Rochester Rhinos squad has typically been its resolute defense, which has been integral toward the club’s success through the years.

Rochester has always been one of the league’s top regular-season squads, advancing to the postseason every season in the club’s 20-year history, other than the 2013 campaign. Following that season, the Rhinos returned to Bob Lilley for his second stint as the club’s head coach, and he has been a welcome presence since.

This season, the Rhinos are back in a familiar position. They opened 2015 with an impressive 3-0-2 road trip and sit in first place in the Eastern Conference as they prepare for Sunday’s home opener against the New York Red Bulls II at Sahlen’s Stadium.

“Overall, we seem to be getting better,” Lilley said. “I think our best performances were these past two games, and we were able to play a lot of different players. We felt some guys were doing well off the bench, so we took the Louisville and Saint Louis games and said that we need to find out where our depth is.”

In the early going, the defense has once again been at the forefront. The Rhinos have allowed only two goals and a miniscule 12 shots on goal in five matches.

“For me, defending is a mentality,” Lilley said. “I don’t believe in shortcuts. I expect all our guys to defend. That’s more of an attitude than anything else. I believe you have to get it right at both ends of the field to win consistently. I’ve never ignored the defensive side of it, but I can tell you we spend a lot more time on possession and attacking exercises.”

Offensively, there were some natural questions heading into the season, especially with the absence of forward J.C. Banks, who led Rochester with nine goals last season.

“J.C. Banks was a huge loss for us, but with Alex Dixon, Jonny Mendoza and Colin Rolfe back, they’re comfortable in Year 2 for us,” Lilley said. “We started to score goals at the end of last year with eight over the last three regular-season games. We’ve continued on from that and the players have improved their level. We’re creating more, we’re more dynamic and we’ve added some players who have made us more effective going forward. Sometimes last year we created chances but we didn’t score. It’s a new season, and I think we’re taking more risks offensively.”

Lilley, who was inducted into the USL Hall of Fame in 2010, is in the midst of his fourth season with the Rhinos. As his Hall of Fame status might indicate, he has been a staple of the USL for many years with the Hershey Wildcats, Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps FC. Lilley then made his way to Rochester, where in his first season he led the Rhinos to a regular-season crown in the USSF Division 2 Professional League in 2010. After the 2011 USL season, which included a first-place performance in the National Division, Lilley decided a break from the game was in order.

“I just needed some time away – it’s as simple as that,” Lilley said. “Being on the road for so long, it was nice to get back home to Pennsylvania for a couple years and clear my head a little bit.”

With Lilley’s absence, the Rhinos had a respectable 2012 showing, but the following year the club missed the postseason for the first time. After that season, Lilley had the itch to return and began discussions with Rhinos President Pat Ercoli.

“I missed it,” Lilley said. “It’s been a big part of my life. Pat’s great to work for and is supportive. We go back a long ways, back when our teams played against each other. I was anxious, and when they didn’t make the playoffs in 2013, I wanted to try and rebuild things. I’m happy being back. The 2010 regular-season title was nice, but we haven’t won since 2001, so hopefully we can work toward another championship.”

Time will tell as to whether Rochester can sustain this successful start to the season, but Lilley is impressed with the mental state of the club as it forges ahead.

“It’s way too early to know; we’ve had our fair share of bounces so far,” Lilley said. “I’ve seen teams that start slow and finish well and others that start fast and fizzle out. We’re still learning a lot about this group, but I like their mentality and approach and how they want to play. It’s a hungry, hard-working group. Now we need to continue to keep that mentality, while improving on our quality. We’ve had a lot of chances these first five games and have not been near clinical enough. We still have a long way to go.”