This Week in Rattlers Soccer
Thursday, August 27 • Colorado State Pueblo (0-0-0) at St. Mary's (0-0-0) • 6 p.m.
Saturday, August 29 • #18 UCCS (0-0-0) at St. Mary's • 6 p.m.
Home Sweet Home: The St. Mary's Men's Soccer team begins the 2026 season with four straight at the friendly confines of Sigma Beta Chi Field. The campaign kicks off on Thursday, hosting Colorado State Pueblo as part of a doubleheader with the women's team. The game will also be a UPC Punch game for St. Mary's students. Come to the game to pick up your card, and get the first punch on the way to fabulous prizes. The Rattlers continue the homestand hosting No. 18 UCCS on Saturday at 6 p.m.
Starting Season 62: The 2026 season marks the 62nd year of Men's Soccer at St. Mary's. The Rattlers are 478-430-95 all-time in 61 seasons. The first win of the season for StMU will mark the 80th for Head Coach Johnny Clifford, who enters 2026 with a record of 79-37-29.
Keep Your Eye On: Sophomores Fabian Enriquez and Kai Louviere, and senior AJ Valdivia were all named Players to Watch by the Lone Star Conference. Enriquez is coming off his redshirt season in 2025, while Louviere was the top scorer at Texas A&M International a year ago, and Valdivia played in 11 games with four shots on goal as a defender in 2025.
History With CSUP: The Thunderwolves hold a 5-1-2 lead in the all-time series that started back in 2000. A season ago, the two teams met in the season opener in Pueblo and ended in a scoreless draw. This is the fifth time in five years the two teams have met on the pitch, including twice in 2022.
History with UCCS: St. Mary's owns a 4-2-3 edge in the all-time series with UCCS, including a 1-0 win last season in Colorado Springs. The Mountain Lions went on to reach the third round of the NCAA Tournament, getting knocked out by Point Loma in San Diego. The series started in 2004 with a 2-1 Rattlers win at Midwestern State.
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.
Art Majors: The St. Mary's 2025 team tied the school's single season record for draws in a season with the 2022 and 2023 teams that went 12-2-6 and 8-5-6, respectively.Â
Playing Clean: St. Mary's finished the 2025 season ranking second in the nation and first in the Lone Star Conference in fewest fouls per game, committing only 8.18 per game. Saint Martin's was the least penalized team in the nation, getting whistled for only 7.11 fouls per night.
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.
Season Openers: The Rattlers are 14-9-3 in season openers at the NCAA level, with a 6-0-2 record under Head Coach Johnny Clifford. StMU is also 3-0-1 in openers against the RMAC since Clifford took over, with all three victories coming against MSU Denver.
New Keeper: For the first time since 2014, the Rattlers begin a season with no goalkeeper on the roster with any returning minutes in goal for St. Mary's. Fabian Enriquez redshirted the 2025 season at St. Mary's, while the team signed a pair of freshmen in Nichita Misac and Armando Quiroga during the offseason.
