St. Mary’s Men’s Soccer Opens Season At Home Against Metro State and Colorado School of Mines

9/4/2019 1:45:00 PM

Caleb Turner

SAN ANTONIO – St. Mary's Men's Soccer opens its 2019-20 season this weekend at home against Metro State on Friday and Colorado School of Mines on Sunday.

 

ST. MARY'S

• The Rattlers look to carry over their success from the Heartland Conference as Johnny Clifford leads the team into the Lone Star Conference in his second year as head coach. Last year the team achieved a 10-5-3 record and its highest national ranking in program history at No. 11. 

• The Rattlers finished third in the Heartland Conference last year, earning a home match in the first round of the playoffs when they hosted the first ever postseason match at Sigma Beta Chi Field. The Rattlers were picked to finish fourth in the Lone Star Conference preseason poll. 

•  Returning forward Nenad Markovic tied for the most assists on last year's squad with six, and came in second in goals with five. Marokovic and midfielders Ollie Wright and Luis Sanchez were the only Rattlers to play in every game last season, and all three return this year. Also in the midfield, senior Carlos Blasco came in second on the team in assists last season with five in his first season after transferring to St. Mary's. 

 

METRO STATE

• The Metro State Roadrunners are opening their season on the road at St. Mary's on Friday at 5 p.m., as newly-instated head coach Hank Lewis begins his time at the helm. 

• The team finished with a 9-10 record last season, losing in the first match of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament to Colorado Mesa. The Roadrunners were picked to finish eighth in the RMAC preseason poll this season

• Sophomore forward Jaime Gutierrez returns for his sophomore year after leading the team with eight goals and five assists in his opening campaign at Metro. 

• The Rattlers are 2-2 in the all-time series against Metro and won the matchup last season 2-1 in Colorado. 

 

COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES

• The Orediggers play a match on Friday at St. Edward's before traveling south to take on St. Mary's at 1 p.m. on Sunday. 

• Since taking over as head coach in 2017, Greg Mulholland is 35-6-2, including going 18-2-1 overall last year and 13-0-1 in RMAC play. Mines was picked as the favorite to win the RMAC championship once again in the preseason poll. 

• Returning senior Jason Zobott was named RMAC Defensive Player of the Year and All-American last season. Forward Ben Overholt tied for most assists on the team last year with six, while midfielders Lucas King and Tristan Semelsberger each added four goals. 

• The Rattlers are 2-1 against the Orediggers in the all-time series and won the matchup last season 4-2 in Colorado. 

 

LIVE COVERAGE

The match will be broadcast on the Lone Star Network and live stats can be found here.