THIS WEEK IN PEACOCK MEN'S SOCCER... The Upper Iowa men's soccer team will head south on Thursday, Oct. 26 as they meet the Fort Hays State Tigers at 5 p.m. in an MIAA contest. The Peacocks will then have the weekend off before hosting the Marauders of the University of Mary in a non-conference match on Monday, Oct. 30 at Pattison Field in Fayette. UIU is looking for its first MIAA victory of the season, and then will look to take down UMary for the second time in 2017.
THE SERIES... Upper Iowa is 2-7-1 all-time against Fort Hays State, after splitting two matches last season, and dropping to FHSU earlier this year. The Peacocks fell in overtime in Kansas last season in the first matchup, but came back with a 2-1 victory in Fayette on the second-to-last day of the regular season. Fort Hays State claimed a 4-1 victory at Pattison Field back on Oct. 6. The Peacocks will square off with U-Mary for the third time, after topping the Marauders 5-1 on Senior Day 2016 in Fayette, and claiming a 2-1 victory in Bismarck, N.D. earlier this season. UIU and U-Mary are members of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference in most of their other varsity sports, and are the only two schools in the NSIC with men's soccer programs.
TOUGH NON-CONFERENCE WEEK... The Peacocks headed down south to Shawnee, Okla. last Thursday evening for a non-conference matchup with the Oklahoma Baptist Bison. Upper Iowa trailed in the second half, but came back to tie the game in the 66th minute. However, the home team had the last say as the Bison scored with nine minutes to play in regulation to earn the 3-2 victory. UIU then dropped a 2-1 decision last Saturday in Bethany, Okla. at Southern Nazarene University. After trailing 2-0, the team scored a late goal in the 71st minute, but it was not enough in the loss.
Italo Martins Soares and
Ruairidh Crawford each tallied goals against OBU, while Crawford scored the only goal against SNU.
TEAM LEADERS... Senior forward Ruairidh Crawford leads the team this season with five goals scored, which ranks seventh in the MIAA conference.
Italo Martins Soares is right behind with four scores, while
Emilio Meraz-Rodriguez has scored twice this season. Six different players have each scored once, marking nine different Peacocks to score a goal this season. Martins Soares leads the squad with 26 shot attempts, while Meraz-Rodriguez has tallied 23 and Crawford has added 16.
Dylan Mientus has recorded 11 shot attempts this season as well. Goalkeeper
Connor Rortvedt has been continuing to tally saves this season in net for the Peacocks. The Verona, Wis. native has now tallied 72 saves in 2017, which leads the MIAA and ranks 25th nationally. Rortvedt's 5.54 saves per game ranks second in the league and 23rd the country. The goalkeeper is on pase for 96 saves this season, which would shatter his season-best of 76 back in 2014. Rortvedt is tallied 294 career saves in goal for the Peacocks.
ABOUT THE OPPONENTS...
vs. FORT HAYS STATE... The Tigers (8-5-2, 5-1 MIAA) have won eight of their last nine games, and won seven straight from Sept. 22 to Oct. 13. FHSU won their final road game last Sunday, 2-0, at the University of Mary. The Tigers are averaging 2.33 goals per game and have a shot percentage of .158. Derek Gonzalez leads the team with 8 goals, while Abdoulaye Cisse and Raul Fierro have tallied 7 and 6 goals, respectively.
vs. UMARY... The Marauders (6-6-1) fell at the hands of Fort Hays State last week, 2-0, and that loss snapped a three-game winning streak for program. UMary is led by Joel McIlroy, who has totaled six goals this season. In net, Ludvig Rhodin is 6-6-1 on the year and has tallied 61 saves in 1140:42 in goal.
