Yellowjacket Men's Soccer Returns to the Road

Game Notes in PDF format

BRIEFLY
The MSUB men’s soccer team dips out of conference this week with a pair of road games at the University of Mary and at Rocky Mountain College.  The Yellowjackets travel to Mary for a 1 p.m. start on Friday and will travel to Rocky on Sunday with a start of 2:30 p.m.

LIVE ON THE NET
The game versus Mary on Friday will be broadcast live on the internet and there will be live stats, too, streamed live by Penn Atlantic.

SCOUTING MONTANA STATE BILLINGS
The Yellowjackets enter the week with a 7-2-2 record after a tie versus Northwest Nazarene last week.  The Yellowjackets are unbeaten in their last six games (4-0-2) and have not lost since a 2-1 loss to Colorado State Pueblo Sept. 10.  Leading the way for the Yellowjackets is senior forward Sam Charles who leads the team and league with 12 goals and 29 points.  He is second on the team in assists with five.  Charles also leads the team with 44 shots and 27 on goal.  He has four game winners on the year, too.  Second on the team in scoring in Garion Holian with 11 points on five goals and one assist.  Chris Andre leads the team in assists with six.

Defensively, the Yellowjackets are led by Matt Mitchell who has an 0.85 goals against average and a 6-2-2 record with three shutouts.  Mitchell has 50 saves on the year with just nine goals against in 10 starts.

As a team, the Yellowjackets have scored 25 goals with 29 assists for 79 points.  MSUB has amassed 150 shots on the year (.167) and 80 shots on goal (.533).  The opponents have 10 goals with six assists for 26 points.  They have 153 shots (.065) and 71 on goal (.464).

RECAPPING LAST WEEK
The Yellowjackets tied their only game last week in a 2-2 decision with Northwest Nazarene.  The Yellowjackets jumped out to a 2-0 lead to watch the Crusaders roar back to tie the game and force overtime.  Each team had its chances in the extra time to win the game, but neither team could find the back of the net.  MSUB’s Sam Charles scored the first goal, just 6:29 continuing his GNAC-record consecutive games with a point for his 14th game dating back to last season.  Garion Holian scored the second goal just 54 seconds into the second half as the Yellowjackets looked well in control.  The Crusaders found life as Matt Larson fired a shot from 30 yards out to regain some momentum in the 55th minute.  John Stump scored the equalizer 15 minutes later. 

SCOUTING UNIVERSITY OF MARY
The Marauders enter the week with a 6-8-1 record overall.  UM has dropped its past two games, including a 2-1 loss to Northwest Nazarene at Yellowjacket Field Tuesday.  The Marauders are led by Nikola Nikolic who leads the team with 10 goals on the year for 24 points.  He also is tied for the team lead in assists with four.  Nikolic leads the team with 44 shots and 23 on goal and has three game winners.  Chris Stier is second on the team in goals with four.    Josh Pape also has four assists.

In goal, the Marauders are led by Billings native, Derek Luptak who has a 1.45 goals against average and 91 saves.  Luptak has played and started all 15 games.  He has 22 goals against and a 6-8-1 record with four shutouts.

For the season, the Marauders have scored 21 goals with 20 assists for 62 points.  They have 142 shots (.148) and 55 on goal (.387).  Their opponents have 22 goals on the year with 22 assists and are shooting .091 and .440 in shots on goal.

INSIDE THE SERIES...
The Yellowjackets lead the all-time series 16-6.  The Yellowjackets also are 8-3 in Bismarck.  MSUB has won the past 11-straight, including a 2-1 decision in Billings earlier this year.  MSUB has won eight-straight in Bismark, too.  Yellowjacket head coach Dan McNally is 7-0 versus the Marauders.

LAST TIME OUT VERSUS THE MARAUDERS
The Yellowjackets overcame a short-lived lead by Marauder goal scoring leader, Nikola Nikolic, as Garion Holian scored the equalizer in the 18th minute on an assist from Ross Carmichael followed by a Sam Charles goal in the second half for a hard-fought, 2-1 win Sept. 13 in Billings.  Carmichael had two assists in the game. 

SCOUTING ROCKY MOUNTAIN COLLEGE
The Battlin’ Bears enter the week with a 3-7 record after a 3-1 loss to Northwest Nazarene on Wednesday.  The Bears will play Westminster College Friday before hosting the Yellowjackets Sunday.  RMC has dropped its past two games and five of six.  Since a 6-0 win over Southwestern College on Sept. 7, RMC only has scored three goals in its next six games (3-14).

INSIDE THE SERIES...
This is the first meeting between the two teams in the regular season.  MSUB downed Rocky in an exhibition game 3-0 on Aug. 22 at Yellowjacket Field.  Rocky is in its first season of men’s soccer.  The teams will play at MSUB on Oct. 24 to conclude the season series.

SIXTH REGIONALLY
The Montana State Billings men’s soccer team is ranked sixth in the first NCAA Division II West Region Poll, announced Tuesday.  “We have worked hard this season to put ourselves in the position to achieve postseason play,” head coach Dan McNally said.  “We are unbeaten in six games and playing well.  We are just taking it one game at a time.  Right now we are focusing on what will be a really difficult road game at the University of Mary on Friday.”  Cal State-Los Angeles leads the first poll and has an 11-0-1 in-region record.  Sonoma State is second (9-0-2), followed by Cal State San Bernardino (8-3).  Great Northwest Athletic Conference foe, Seattle Pacific, is fourth with a 7-1-3 record, followed by Grand Canyon University (8-1-1) and MSUB is sixth with a 5-2-2 in-region record and a 7-2-2 overall mark.

LEADING THE LEAGUE
The Yellowjackets lead the GNAC in a number of team and individual areas.  The ‘Jackets are tops in the league in points (79), points per game (7.18), goals (25), goals per game (2.27), assists (29), assists per game (2.64), saves (61) and saves per game (5.55).  Sam Charles is tied for second in shots (44 and is tied for first in shots per game (4.00). He leads the team in points (29), points per game (2.64), goals (12), goals per game (1.09) and game-winning goals (4).  Chris Andre is tied for the lead in assists (6) and assists per game (0.55) with Vlad Voin of Saint Martin’s.

ANDRE NAMED PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Junior forward, Chris Andre, was named GNAC Player of the Week as he tallied the game-winning goal against Western Washington.  He sparked the Yellowjackets to a 2-1 double overtime win at WWU which was the first win in school history in Bellingham.  It was Andre’s first POW honor of the season and third for the Yellowjackets. 

NATIONALLY SPEAKING
The Montana State Billings men’s soccer team is ranked nationally in a number of areas.  The Yellowjackets are 41st nationally in scoring offense (2.27), 33rd in team goals against average (0.84), 43rd in shutout percentage (0.36) and 15th in save percentage (0.859).  Individually, Sam Charles is seventh nationally in points per game (2.64) and 10th in goals per game (1.09).  Chris Andre is 26th in assists per game (0.55), while Matt Mitchell is 35th in goals against average (0.848) and is 21st in save percentage at a 0.847 clip.

JACKETS THIRD IN PRESEASON POLL
Montana State Billings was picked third in the annual GNAC Coaches Poll.  Western Washington was the unanimous favorite, followed by Seattle Pacific, MSUB, Saint Martin’s and Northwest Nazarene.  WWU had 25 points to lead the way. 

MCNALLY HITS .500
With a 3-1 win over Jamestown (Sept. 20), Dan McNally  reached the .500 mark for the first time in his career.  He started his career 10-24-2 in his first two years and has gone 30-14-3 since.  He is the all-time winningest coach at MSUB in men’s soccer and has led the team to back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in school history.  McNally now is 40-38-5.

MCNALLY COACHES’ SHOW
Each week fans have the opportunity to log on to www.msubillings.edu/athletics and listen to Dan McNally’s Coaches Show.  McNally will breakdown the previous week and preview the upcoming with the voice of the Yellowjackets, Ken Adelblue. 

LIVE ON THE WEB
This season ALL MSUB home men’s and women’s soccer games will be FREE on the internet with live video and audio as the voice of the Yellowjackets, Ken Adelblue, will have the call.  Please log onto www.msubillings.edu/athletics/broadcasts.htm to catch every home game.