SACRAMENTO -- Head men's soccer coach Michael Linenberger announced Wednesday that Robert Willcot and Simon Vaca-Lorenzi have signed National Letters of Intent to continue their academic and athletic careers at Sacramento State.
Willcot, a striker from Victorville, Calif., and Vaca-Lorenzi, a local product from nearby Davis, Calif., will join the Hornets' program beginning with the 2023 season.
"We are excited to add these two student-athletes to our large group of returning players," Linenberger said. "We think they will fit in great to our team, not only as great players, but also as good students and as people with high character."
A familiar name to Sacramento State men's soccer fans, Willcot joins his older brother Jhared on the Hornets following a standout career with the LAFC U17 Academy team. He was a member of the club's U13 squad that were named CONCACAF champions and won the Man City Cup, while also spending time as a member of the U15 U.S. National Team, traveling to Poland to compete in a UEFA Development Tournament in 2019 against teams from Iceland, Poland, and Russia.
A four-star recruit according to Top Drawer Soccer, Willcot was also called into camp with the U15 Boys National Team in 2020 and continues the line of soccer-playing Willcots, joining Jhared and sister, Cora, who played at CSUN.
"Robert is an attacking player that has the speed and 1-v-1 ability to unbalance and get behind an opponent's back line," Linenberger said. "He can play anywhere on the front line and we expect him to make an immediate impact next fall as a freshman."
A six-foot striker from just across the Causeway, Vaca-Lorenzi is entering his senior season with the Blue Devils while also competing with the Davis Legacy 05 ECNL squad. In his three previous prep seasons, Vaca-Lorenzi has scored 26 goals and assisted on 28 others, including a prep-high 14 goals and 12 assists as a junior in 2021.
In eight years with his club team, Vaca-Lorenzi has been named the 2022 U17 ECNL NorCal Player of the Year and was a U17 ECNL All-American, finishing with 21 goals and 19 assists in 21 matches. He is set to compete alongside his club mates at the UPSL Champions Cup in Mexico beginning on Nov. 3.
"Simon is a pure goal scorer who reads the game well and consistently gets himself into great goal scoring positions," Linenberger said. "He can score in multiple ways and we expect to reap those rewards next fall."
Sacramento State wrapped up a 2022 campaign that saw the Hornets finish 9-8-2 overall and 4-5 in the Big West Conference, qualifying for the conference tournament for the first time since 2017. The nine victories overall were the most since 2016 (9-8-3), while the four Big West wins were the most since 2017 (4-4-2). At one point in the year, Sacramento State was receiving votes in the United Soccer Coaches Association national poll and were ranked among the organization's Far West Region poll for seven of the 10 weeks during the regular season.
Individually, seven student-athletes earned All-Big West honors in Austin Wehner, who became the first Sacramento State player named to the first team since 2017 and only the fifth in the history of the program, Genaro Alfaro (second team), Francisco Magana (honorable mention), Alejandro Padilla (honorable mention), Edgar Guerra (honorable mention and all-freshman team), Danny Govea (all-freshman team), and Justin Faison (all-freshman team).
