Talented Men’s Soccer Goalkeepers Competing for Starting Role

Interesting preseason battles can be found across a 2026 Georgia Gwinnett College men’s soccer team that’s striving to build upon last year’s 13-win squad that won a conference championship and advanced to the quarterfinal round of the NAIA national tournament.

No position may be under the radar as much for the Grizzlies as goalkeeper, where two quality, highly productive and experienced players return, along with other options, to be the last line of a stingy defense.

GGCAthletics.com continues examining the upcoming season by highlighting the team’s goalkeeping options that will face a challenging schedule this fall. The season gets underway August 21 with a match at SCAD Savannah (Georgia). The home opener is set for August 31 against Southeastern University (Florida). Later, the team will face four opponents that qualified for the NAIA tournament, including two foes that advanced to the semifinal round.

GGC is blessed with a deep goalkeeping unit, featuring reigning Continental Athletic Conference Goalkeeper of the Year Victor Darub and veteran Dagoberto Romero.

“We have two No. 1 goalkeepers and both of those players are going to battle it out to start for us,” said Head Coach Steve DeCou, who enters his 15th season leading the Grizzlies.

Darub, a sophomore, had a 13-3-4 record and 0.97 goals against average, with eight shutouts, while starting all 20 matches last season. One of those shutouts came with a penalty-kick shootout victory against the University of Rio Grande (Ohio) in the second round of the NAIA tournament.

Meanwhile, Romero is a senior who was in goal for 11 victories among 19 starts in 2024 before an offseason injury limited his productivity to one match last fall. 

Freshmen Camden Osburn and Lucca Schmitel add depth to the goalkeeping position.

That depth and quality, along with talent across other preseason positional battles, have the Grizzlies primed for more success this season.

“The goal is to get farther than the quarterfinal (round of the NAIA tournament). We need to get to a semifinal and then championship match and win the entire thing,” admitted DeCou. “We put together a schedule that, if successful, will get us in the NAIA tournament. Our first goal is always to win the conference. However, if you don’t, it comes down to receiving an at-large tournament bid. A big component is RPI (power index) and where you are seeded in the tournament.”