Men's Soccer Hosts Cross-Town Foe Rocky Mountain College in First Regular Season Matchup

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BRIEFLY
The MSUB men’s soccer team returns home for a non-conference matchup with first year program and cross-town foe Rocky Mountain College Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at Yellowjacket Field.  The Yellowjackets enter the match with a 9-3-2 record overall, while Rocky enters with a 3-8 record overall.

SENIOR DAY
It is Senior Day for the MSUB men’s soccer team as it will honor six Yellowjackets playing in their final season at MSUB.  The seniors include; Sam Charles, Jeremy DeHerrera, Tom Milroy, Sander Tollefson, Jarred Weisen and Zach Yeager.  These six seniors have been the foundation of head coach Dan McNally’s rebuilding process as the Yellowjackets have gone 32-15-3 in the last three years, including a school record three consecutive winning seasons.  In addition, they are the winningest class in school history with a 37-26-5 record.

SCOUTING MONTANA STATE BILLINGS
The Yellowjackets are led by senior forward Sam Charles who continues his onslaught of the MSUB and GNAC record books.  Charles leads the team and the conference with 16 goals and 38 points.  Charles is second on the team in assists with six and leads the team in shots (54), shots on goal (32) and has six game winners on the year.  Second on the team in scoring is Chris Andre who leads the team with seven assists on the year and has three goals for 13 points.  Garion Holian and Jeremy DeHerrera are third on the team in scoring with 11 points.  Holian has five goals, while DeHerrera has seven assists to tie for the team lead.

Between the posts, the Yellowjackets are led by Matt Mitchell who has played and started in 12 games.  He has a 1.08 goals against average in 1086:04 minutes of action.  Mitchell has 55 saves and a 7-3-2 record with three shutouts.  Senior Sander Tollefson has played in four games with two starts.  He Has a 2-0 record with one shutout in 250:49 minutes.  Tollefson has 14 saves on the year.

As a team, the Yellowjackets have scored 32 goals with 35 assists for 99 points. MSUB has 179 shots on the year (.179) and 92 on goal for a .514 clip.  The Yellowjackets are 2-2 in penalty kicks this year as well.  Conversely, the Yellowjackets have allowed just 16 goals with 12 assists for 44 points which is the second fewest goals allowed in the league.  Opponents are shooting just .086 against the ‘Jackets.

RECAPPING LAST WEEK
The Yellowjackets had probably one of their most disappointing performances of the season last Saturday at No. 24 Seattle Pacific with a 4-1 loss and followed with one of their better performances in a key 3-0 victory at Northwest Nazarene on Tuesday. 

Against SPU, the Falcons set the tone in the first half with a pair of goals midway through the first half and the Yellowjackets never recovered.  Drew Williams tallied three assists in the game for the Falcons.  MSUB’s lone goal came in the second half to cut the deficit to 2-1 as Chris Andre scored unassisted off a free kick, but GNAC Player of the Week, Tyler Schultz, added the insurance goal later in the second half to put the game away.  SPU added a fourth goal in the final 10 minutes in a game that it dominated the statistics to the tune of 19-6 in shots and 10-1 in shots on goal.

The Yellowjackets responded to the adversity of a number of players sick with colds and sore throats to a 3-0 shutout at Northwest Nazarene Tuesday to keep their GNAC championship and NCAA Tournament hopes alive.  Sam Charles scored two of the three goals in the win as the Yellowjackets won for the first time against NNU since the Crusaders added men’s soccer as an intercollegiate sport last year.  MSUB goalkeeper, Sander Tollefson, won his second game of the year and posted his second shutout.

SCOUTING ROCKY MOUNTAIN COLLEGE
The Battlin’ Bears enter the week with a 3-8 record and have not played since a 4-0 loss to Westminster College at MSUB on Oct. 9 due to snow on Wendy’s Field at Rocky.  RMC has scored just one goal in its past three matches with two of those three losses coming against NCAA Division II teams.  The Bears lost 4-0 to the University of Mary, followed by a 3-1 loss to Northwest Nazarene and the loss to Westminster and have been outscored 11-1 during that span.  Leading the way for the Bears this season is James Voisey who leads the team with four goals and two assists for 10 points.  He also leads the team with 10 shots on goal.  Nick Heffernan is second on the team in goals with three and has two assists. Alex Ritson leads the team with three assists on the year. 

In goal, Johan Karlsson leads the way with 23 saves in 10 games and a .605 average.  He has a 2.6 goals against average on the year with no shutouts and 15 goals allowed.  Tyler Chandler has played in four games with six saves and one shutout.

As a team, the Bears have scored 13 goals on the year with eight assists and 47 shots on goal.  The opponents have scored 25 goals with 21 assists.

INSIDE THE SERIES...
This is the first regular season meeting with Rocky in school history.  MSUB won a 3-0 exhibition victory over the Battlin’ Bears at Yellowjacket Field in August.  MSUB was led by a pair of goals from Sam Charles.  All three goals came in the second half.

CHARLES IN CHARGE
Senior forward Sam Charles continues his assault on the school and conference record books. He is three goals shy of tying his own school and conference record of 19 goals set each of the past two seasons.  Charles broke the career point record in the GNAC earlier this year and broke the career goal record as well.  He also set two league records this season as he scored goals in nine consecutive games dating back to last season and broke the record for consecutive games with a point (15) dating back to last season.

WITHIN THE RANKS
The MSUB men’s soccer team ranks high nationally in a number of team and individual areas.  The Yellowjackets are 38th in scoring offense (2.23), 58th in team goals against average (1.15), 68th in shutout percentage (0.31) and 36th in save percentage at an 0.81 clip.  Individually, Sam Charles is seventh nationally in points per game at a 2.54 clip. He also is seventh in goals per game (1.08), while Chris Andre is 26th in assists per game (0.54) and Jeremy DeHerrera is 42nd.  Matt Mitchell ranks 51st in goals against average (1.07) and he is 34th in save percentage at an 0.809 clip.

LEADING THE LEAGUE
MSUB leads the league in a number of areas this season, including points (99), goals (32), goals per game (2.29), points per game (7.07), assists (35), assists per game (2.50).  Individually, Sam Charles leads the league in shots (54), points (38), points per game (2.71), goals (16), goals per game (1.14), and game-winning goals with six.  Chris Andre and Jeremy DeHerrera are tied for second in assists with seven, while Charles is fifth with six.

ASSISTING ANDRE
Junior forward Chris Andre has 15 career assists two short of the school record of 17 set by Scott Dixon last season. Andre topped preivous leader, Thomas Pertuit, with Andre's 14th assist against Northwest Nazarene on Oct. 3. Andre and Jeremy DeHerrera lead the team with seven assists this year.

TOLLEFSON PITCHING A SHUTOUT
Senior goalkeeper Sander Tollefson tallied his first shutout of the season at Northwest Nazarene on Tuesday.  He stopped four balls all in the second half to preserve a 3-0 lead and get the Yellowjackets back on the winning track.  Tollefson has played in four games and started two this season and carries a 1.08 goals against average with 14 saves and a 2-0 record. He also helped in a shutout earlier in the year as MSUB blanked Colorado Christian 6-0 in the season opener.

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 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.