SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Santa Clara men's soccer travels to Los Angeles to face first-place LMU in a key West Coast Conference matchup on Saturday. Kickoff at Sullivan Field is at 7:05 p.m. just after the Lions Senior Day ceremony.
Santa Clara (8-5-1, 2-2 WCC) currently sits tied for third in the conference standings with six points alongside Portland and Gonzaga, but are behind Portland having lost to them a week ago. LMU (9-4-3, 4-0 WCC) has collected 12 points and is tied for first with Saint Mary's.
Saturday's match will mark the third game in seven days for both squads, having played last weekend plus a midweek game. After losing to Portland, the
Broncos bounced back with a win against San Francisco, 1-0, on Wednesday. The Lions won both their matches from earlier in the week, taking down Pacific, 2-1, in overtime and No. 23-San Diego, 3-1, both on the road.
The Broncos will bring their impressive 4-1 record on true away games this season against LMU who are 6-2-1 at home playing their final home match of the year.
THE LIONS (9-4-3, 4-0 WCC)
Paul Krumpe enters his 22nd season at the helm for LMU where he has a 192-183-48 record. The two-time WCC Coach of the Year has guided a Lions squad that currently sits in a first-place tie atop the league standings.
LMU has shutout seven opponents this season and is giving up 1.00 goal per game while scoring at a 1.50 goal per game clip. Similar to the Broncos, the Lions have a balanced scoring attack with 12 players scoring atleast a goal. Duhaney Williams leads the team with four goals and 11 points. Bastien Oberli is tied for second on the team with three goals but all of them have them game-winners.
Goalkeeper Jacob Jackson has started in all 12 matches he's appeared in posting a 0.85 goals-against-average with a .796 save percentage. Alfredo Cortez has started in the other four matches with a 1.23 GAA and .762 save percentage.
SERIES HISTORY
Santa Clara leads the series 25-14-9. The last Bronco win came in 2015 in a 2-1 overtime match at LMU.
THE BRONCOS (8-5-1, 2-2 WCC)
Badenes Mecho already has five clean sheets to his credit as defensively, the Broncos have kept the opposition under a single goal in all but two matches this season.
The 2019 campaign marks the 18th season at the helm for Santa Clara head coach Cam Rast who leads a squad that returns 23 players including three All-West Coast Conference honorees from a team that finished 5-10-2.
Nineteen of the returners saw action last season with 13 of them appearing in double digit matches to account for 80 percent of its goals and all of its assists.
Junior
Javier Ruiz Duran led the team in goals (six) and assists (five) to earn All-WCC Second Team recognition along with senior
Miles Robinson who scored four and assisted on three. Sophomore
Eduardo Lopez Perez tallied a pair of goals and was named to the WCC All-Freshman team.
Redshirt junior
Henning Jolivet brings the most experience between the woodwork playing in seven matches last season to finish with a 3-3-1 record and a 1.89 goals against average.
NOTES
1989 National Championship - 30th Anniversary
• Santa Clara men's soccer celebrated their 30th anniversary of the 1989 National Championship this season. Members of the 1989 squad was recognized during halftime of the Oct. 12 match against Saint Mary's during Grand Reunion weekend. Current coaches Cam Rast and Eric Yamamoto were on the 1989 championship squad (video courtesy WCC).
Live Stream
• All Bronco home matches and West Coast Conference road matches are streamed live on the WCC Network with David Gentile doing the play-by-play for the home matches.
Broncos Team Information
• Twenty-three players return from the 2018 squad that finished with an overall record of 5-10-2 (1-5-1 in the West Coast Conference).
• Nineteen players with playing experience return including 13 who played 10 or more games last season.
Class Breakdown
Across the Globe
• The Bronco roster fields a squad composed of player hometowns from eight states and five countries.
o States: California, Colorado, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Texas, Virginia and Washington
o Countries: Canada, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Spain, United States
All-West Coast Conference
United Soccer Coaches All-West Region
2019 Exhibition Matches
• Freshman goalkeeper
Guillem Badenes Mecho played in 135 of 180 minutes including starting the Sacramento State game.
Season Openers
• With the win against Holy Cross, Broncos head coach Cam Rast is 10-8 including 5-4 at home in season openers.
Firsts
Goals
• Senior
Sam Agosti and sophomore
Martin Aasen tallied their first goals as a Bronco in the season opener (Aug. 30) against Holy Cross.
• Junior
Terrell Smith scored his first career goal against San Diego State (Sept. 14).
• Junior
Isaac Addai scored his first career goal against Lipscomb (Sept. 27).
• Sophomore
Alejandro Barajas scored his first career goal against Evansville (Sept. 29).
Assists
• Redshirt sophomore
Presten Manthey had his first career assists (two) against San Jose State (Sept. 6).
• Sophomore
Sakari Carter had his first career assist against San Diego State (Sept. 14).
• Sophomore
Alejandro Perez recorded his first career assist against Lipscomb (Sept. 27).
• Sophomore
Emil Christensen recorded his first career assist against Evansville (Sept. 29).
Starts
• Redshirt freshman
Presten Manthey made his first Bronco start against San Jose State (Sept. 6).
• Freshman
Damani Osei made his first Bronco start against Utah Valley (Sept. 19).
Bronco Debuts
• Freshman
Damani Osei made his Bronco debut coming off the bench against Missouri State (Sept. 2).
Shutous
• Badenes Mecho recorded his first career shutout against Holy Cross (Aug. 30). He was also credited with shutouts in three straight matches against Lipscomb (Sept. 27), Evansville (Sept. 29) and CSUN (Oct. 5). He also shutout San Francisco (Oct. 30) for his fifth of the season.
Starting XI
• Alex Achramowicz started in the first two matches (vs. Holy Cross on Aug. 30 and Missouri State on Sept. 2).
• Alan Camacho Soto started against Holy Cross on Aug. 30, Missouri State on Sept. 2 and San Diego State on Sept. 14.
•
Nate Shue started against San Jose State (Sept. 6), Grand Canyon (Sept. 8) and San Diego State (Sept. 14).
• Presten Manthey started against San Jose State (Sept. 6) and Grand Canyon (Sept. 8).
• Isaac Addai started for the first time this season against Portland (Oct. 26).
• Sam Agosti started for the first time this season against San Francisco (Oct. 30).
Spreading the Wealth
Steady D
• Santa Clara has five shutouts on the season thus far, the most since 2015 when the Broncos played in the NCAA Tournament.
• The Broncos have held opponents to one goal or less in all but two matches this season. After the opening day shutout against Holy Cross, the Broncos allowed one goal in each of the subsequent six matches followed by three straight shutouts before giving up a season-high two goals against then-No. 8 Saint Mary's (Oct. 12). They also conceded two goals against Portland (Oct. 26).
• The last time the Broncos posted shutouts in three-straight matches was back in 2012 when they shut out NJIT (Sept. 21), San Diego (Sept. 28) and LMU (Sept. 30).
• During the three-match shutout streak, the Broncos held their opponents scoreless for 349 straight minutes until the first half goal by Saint Mary's Joseph Restani on Oct. 12.
National Ranking
• Goalkeeper
Guillem Badenes Mecho is ranked 18th in the country (and second in the WCC) in goals-against-average with 0.717. The freshman has five clean sheets on the season and has given up only nine goals in 13 matches spanning 1129 minutes of action.
Home, then away
• Santa Clara started its season with a five-match homestand, followed by five straight matches on the road before starting West Coast Conference play at home on Oct. 12.
• The team finished with a 2-2-1 record in the homestand and 4-1 on the road trip.
Road Warriors
• The Broncos have a 4-2 record away from home including 4-1 in true road games. They lost a neutral site match in Las Vegas against Utah Valley, 1-0, on Sept. 19.
• Santa Clara had its four-match road win streak snapped at Portland (Oct. 26).
Two Goals Equal a Win
• In seven of their eight wins this season, the Broncos have scored two or more goals. The only exception was the 1-0 win over San Francisco (Oct. 30).
Close Margins
• Four of the five Broncos losses this season have been by a one goal margin. The first three were 1-0 losses to Missouri State (Sept. 2), Grand Canyon (Sept. 8) and Utah Valley (Sept. 19) before losing 2-1 to Saint Mary's (Oct. 12).
• The Broncos lost by a two goals for the first time against Portland (Oct. 26) all season.
Attendance
• The home match against Saint Mary's (Oct. 12) drew a crowd of 1,514, for the biggest SCU men's soccer crowd at Stevens Stadium since 2007 when 2,487 fans attended the third round of the NCAA tournament against Notre Dame game on Dec. 1. It was the biggest regular season crowd since Oct. 21, 2007 when Santa Clara played Gonzaga infront of 1,618 fans.
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