This Week in Rattlers Soccer
Saturday, Oct. 3 • St. Edward's (2-5-2, 1-2) at St. Mary's (6-3-0, 2-0-0) • 7:30 p.m.
Game will be played at Cornerstone Christian High School

Week Six: The St. Mary's Men's Soccer team had a bye on Wednesday and will host St. Edward's in the annual Battle of the Saints on Saturday. Due to weather, the game will be played at Cornerstone Christian at 7:30 p.m. and will not be video streamed, however there will be live stats.

Battle of the Saints: The winner of the Battle of the Saints earns one point toward a cumulative total and bragging rights between the two schools. The Rattlers have won the competition 5.5-to-2.5 each of the last two years and won 4-3 in 2023-24. The contest enters its 17th year in 2026-27. A draw between the two teams on the pitch would count 0.5 points to each school, which is what happened in the women's soccer game last week.

A Look Back: St. Mary's is one of three undefeated teams remaining in LSC action after defeating Lubbock Christian 4-1 and winning 1-0 at Sul Ross State. Midwestern State is 3-0, while Oklahoma Christian is 1-0-2. In the Rattlers win over the Chaps Ricky Alvarez, Eduardo Fernandez and Dyllan Mendoza each scored a goal, while the fourth was an own goal. Kai Louviere kicked the winning goal at Sul Ross State.

History with St. Edward's: Saturday will be the 82nd meeting between the I-35 rivals. The Hilltoppers own a 49-23-9 lead in the all-time series, though the Rattlers hold a 4-1-2 lead in the meetings since the teams joined the Lone Star with the lone loss coming last year in Austin. StMU is 4-2-1 in games at Sigma Beta Chi Field and are 5-2-2 since Johnny Clifford took over as head coach.

Scouting the 'Toppers: St. Ed's is 2-5-2 on the season, and is coming off a 5-0 win over Sul Ross State on Wednesday. Both Izaiah Garza and Isaac Guajardo have five points to tie for the team lead, while eight Hilltoppers have found the back of the net this season. SEU has used to goalkeepers, with Eddie Alonzi starting five games with 22 saves and nine goals allowed and Kaleo Perez-Francis starting the other four with 14 saves and four goals surrendered. Perez-Francis has been in goal for both victories.

Defensive Player of the Week: Graduate transfer Filipe Bastos was named the Lone Star Conference defensive player of the week on Monday. Bastos helped anchor the defense, which allowed only one goal on the week in wins over Lubbock Christian (4-1) and Sul Ross State (1-0). Bastos also recorded an assist on the game-tying goal in the 11th minute against LCU. Bastos, who played three different defensive positions over the two matches, helped record a clean sheet in a 1-0 road match against SRSU.

Strong Start: This is the fourth time since joining the Lone Star Conference in 2019 that the Rattlers are 2-0 to open up conference play. The team also started 2-0 in 2021, 2022, and 2024. In 2022 and 2024 the Rattlers went on to win the regular season championship.

Shot Distribution: In the first nine games, St. Mary's has taken 126 shots by 20 different players. Sophomore Kai Louviere has taken a team-high 17 shots, while Sebastian Poblete has 16 and Dyllan Mendoza has 14. Eduardo Fernandez leads the team with 10 shots on goal.

Unselfish: St. Mary's is currently averaging 2.56 assists per game, which leads the Lone Star Conference and ranks fourth in Division II. The Rattlers have 23 assists, which is seven shy of appearing on the school's top-10 single-season chart with at least eight games remaining. The 1997 team holds the record with 62 assists in its 20 games. Thirteen players have at least one assist this season, while Ricky Alvarez, Kai Louviere and Dyllan Mendoza are tied for the team lead with three each.

Lalo in the Lead: Sophomore Eduardo Fernandez currently leads the Lone Star Conference and ranks 20th in Division II with 1.75 points per game. The sophomore transfer also leads with 0.75 goals per game (21st).

Making the Most: Sophomore Sean Borland has made the most of his time on the pitch in his second season. Borland has scored two goals in four shots and all four shots have been on goal. He is averaging just under 25 minutes per game and has five points.

Here's Your Hat: Eduardo Fernandez became only the 10th player in St. Mary's history to record at least a hat trick with his three goals against Sul Ross State on Sept. 9. Richard Cassinelli (Sept. 6, 1970) and Marco Garcia (Oct. 13, 1990) share the school record with five goals in a match. He was named the D2CIDA National Player of the Week for his efforts, becoming the first-ever honoree in school history.

A Rarity: The win at #9 Rogers State was only the fifth win under Johnny Clifford when the Rattlers were trailing at halftime (1-0). St. Mary's is now 5-25-6 in the ninth season with Clifford at the helm. The team is an astounding 53-3-2 when leading at the break and 27-11-20 when entering the locker room tied after 45 minutes.

Multi Scores: Head Coach Johnny Clifford has 85 wins in his career, and in 45 of those victories (53 percent) the Rattlers have scored three or more goals, including the 10-0 win over Sul Ross State, which ties for the fourth-most goals in a game in school history and is the second-highest total since the team joined the NCAA Division II ranks in 2000.

Preseason Poll: With 18 newcomers on the roster, the prognosticators in the Lone Star Conference were unsure of the new look Rattlers and voted the team eighth in the 11-team league preseason poll. Defending national champion Midwestern State was chosen to repeat as champions, receiving 30 of the 33 first-team votes and 351 points. Rival St. Edward's has been selected second with 293 points, while UT Dallas (2 first-place votes, 290 points), Lubbock Christian (1, 241) and UT Tyler (198) round out the top five. The Rattlers garnered 161 points, finishing behind DBU (187) and West Texas A&M (175), and ahead of Oklahoma Christian (133), Sul Ross State (75) and Texas A&M International (74).

What's Returning: The Rattlers return only six of last season's 33 points, with two each coming from Ryan Guillaume and Sebastian Poblete and one each from Matt Espinoza and Axel Villegas. Poblete became the first freshman to score a game-winning goal since 2022, kicking the winner last season against Oklahoma Christian.

Cresto Success: Assistant Coach Deni Cresto served as the acting head coach on Sept. 5 against Texas A&M-San Antonio. He is now 1-0-3 in games where he's served as the acting head coach, as last season he led the team to three draws while Head Coach Johnny Clifford was either suspended (1) or gone for the birth of his daughter (2).

Roster Notes: The Rattlers will merge 12 returners with 18 newcomers to make up the 30-man roster for 2026. There are seven countries represented on the roster with 19 from the United States, two each from England, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland, and one from Scotland.