United Athletic Conference

UIW's Eduarado Perez and UT Rio Grande Valley's Oliver Padilla have been named Western Athletic Conference Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively, for October 11 through October 17.

 

Perez, a sophomore midfielder from Santander, Cantabria, Spain, scored both of the Cardinals' goals in a 2-0 win over Chicago State on Saturday. After a scoreless first half, he put UIW on the scoreboard in the 59th minute and then doubled the Cardinals' lead 10 minutes later with his fourth goal of the season. 

 

Padilla, a senior goalkeeper from Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico, made the only save that he needed to make to earn his second-career shutout in a 1-0 win over visiting Houston Baptist on Saturday evening. On the season, he boasts a 1.82 goals-against-average with a .643 save percentage over 495 minutes in net.

 

Other offensive nominees: Dixie State's Idris Alabi scored each of the Trailblazers' goals in a 3-2 loss at California Baptist … Grand Canyon's Tosh Yasuda scored the lone goal for the Lopes in a 2-1 loss at San José State … San José State's Rudi Castro assisted on both Spartan goals in a 2-1 upset win over nationally-ranked Grand Canyon … Seattle U's Declan McGlynn scored the equalizer in Saturday's 2-1 win over Air Force … UT Rio Grande Valley's Javier Chavez scored his first career goal in a 1-0 win over Houston Baptist on Saturday night … Utah Valley's Jojea Kwizera scored a goal and assisted on the game-winner in a 4-1 home win over UNLV on Saturday.

 

Other defensive nominees: Dixie State's Domique Kossehasse played tough on the 'Blazers back line as DSU fell in a tight 3-2 match at California Baptist … San José State's David Sweeney made seven saves to earn the win in the Spartans' 2-1 victory over nationally-ranked Grand Canyon … Utah Valley's Aidan Dayton was a key member of the Wolverine defense in a 4-1 win over UNLV

 

The push towards the postseason steps up into high gear this week with a full slate of matches. San José State and Seattle U head down to the Lone Star State for a Texas Two-Step, playing at UT Rio Grande Valley and UIW. Utah Valley heads to Chicago State before traveling to Houston Baptist while California Baptist does the reverse, playing at HBU before heading to the Windy City. Dixie State and UNLV also hit the road, traveling to Air Force and Grand Canyon.

 

As a team, Seattle U leads the WAC in shots (218), corner kicks (88) and are tied with Grand Canyon and San José State for the lead in shutouts (4). First-place GCU is also the leader in points (82), goals (29), goals per game (2.42), least goals allowed (11) and goals against average (0.91). Air Force, also in first place, holds the lead in assists (25) while Utah Valley holds the top mark in assists per game (2.09). Dixie State has the lead in saves (65).

 

Individually, SU's Declan McGlynnis the leader in shots (50) and AFA's Tristan Trager is the leader in shots per game (4.00), points (23), points per game (2.09), goals per game (0.82) and is tied with CBU's Bryan Iliohan for the lead in total goals (9). UNLV's Marco Gonzalez and SU's Levonte Johnson are tied for the lead in assists (0.46) while Gonzalez has a slight lead in assists per game (0.46). 

 

In goal, UVU's Joseph Wheelwright has the top goals against average (0.80) while GCU's Rafael Guerrero is the leader in save percentage (.857). SU's Akili Kasim has the most saves (57) while DSU's Levi Lord is the leader in saves per game (5.40). Guerrero, Kasim and SJSU's David Sweeney share the lead for shutouts with three each.

 

Due to the lightning-forced cancelation of the schedule match between Utah Valley and UT Rio Grande Valley on Oct. 1, the standings will revert to a points per match format for the remainder of the 2021 season.

 

Grand Canyon briefly held the NCAA seasonal high for attendance when 5,018 fans packed themselves into GCU Stadium on Sep. 10 and were treated to a 1-0 Lopes win over Saint Mary's. On the season, GCU ranks 14th nationally in average attendance at 1,597 while Utah Valley is 17th at 1,341.

 

Despite the loss at San José State, Grand Canyon remained in two of the three national polls, coming in at 15th in the Top Drawer Soccer Top 25 and 17th in the College Soccer News Top 30. GCU dropped out of the United Soccer Coaches Top 25 but are still among those receiving votes.

 

In the latest United Soccer Coaches Far West Regional Ranking, four WAC schools hold spots. Grand Canyon fell one spot to sixth and is followed by Air Force in seventh and California Baptist in eighth. UT Rio Grande Valley joined the poll this week, coming in at 10th.

 

Grand Canyon fell three spots after a loss at San José State but is still sitting at 11th in the latest NCAA RPI Rankings. Seattle U is 35th while UT Rio Grande Valley is 60th to round out players in the top 100.

 

Grand Canyon is the preseason favorite to win the 2021 Western Athletic Conference men's soccer title in a vote of the league's 12 head coaches, who could not vote for their own team.

 

The Lopes received six of 12 first-place votes to finish with 110 points for the preseason nod. Seattle U was just two points back, picking up four first-place votes to tally 108 points. San José State grabbed the final two first place votes to finish third with 94 points. Air Force was fourth with 89 points, followed closely by UT Rio Grande Valley in fifth with 86 points. California Baptist was sixth with 76 points, UNLV was seventh with 68 points and Utah Valley was eighth with 55 points. UIW was ninth, followed by Dixie State and Houston Baptist in a tie for 10th and Chicago State rounding out the poll in 12th. 

 

Grand Canyon's Justin Rasmussen and Esai Easley were selected as the WAC Preseason Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year respectively in a vote of the league's 12 head coaches, who could not vote for their own team or players.

 

Rasmussen and Easley were joined on the Preseason All-WAC squad by teammate Maximilian Moeller. San José State also had three honored with Willy Miranda, Max Allen and Carlos Gomez Zavala earning recognition. Seattle U was represented by Noe Meza and Akili Kasim. Also earning recognition were Air Force's London Aghedo, California Baptist's Thomas Beecham and UT Rio Grande Valley's Reshaun Walkes.

 

The WAC will have some strong competition in the non-conference portion of the schedule with seven matches scheduled against participants from last spring's NCAA Tournament. Grand Canyon and Seattle U have two each with both the Lopes and Redhawks scheduled to play both Washington and Oregon State. Air Force is also scheduled to take on Oregon State while Utah Valley will host Washington. Finally, San José State will take on nearby-rival Stanford.

 

Utah Valley has announced former US National Team member Kyle Beckerman as its next head coach. Beckerman retired after a monumentally successful 21-year professional and international career in December. He spent 14 of those seasons in Utah with Real Salt Lake, where he was a captain and led the team to a 2009 MLS Cup. He also had 58 caps as a member of the U.S. National Team, including starting appearances in the 2014 World Cup. In 2020, he was named one of Major League Soccer's 25 Greatest Players of all-time.

 

Former MLS SuperDraft Pick and All-American defender at UCLA Leonard Griffin will take over as head coach at Grand Canyon, replacing the retiring Schellas Hyndman. Griffin heads to Phoenix after two seasons as the head coach at San Francisco. He also served as an assistant at Saint Mary's, California and UCLA and he began his coaching career as an assistant at Cal State San Bernadino. 

 

Current Seattle Sounders FC and former Seattle U defender Alex Roldan was voted by fans as an MLS All-Star and joined his brother Cristian on Aug. 25 as the best of the MLS take on the best of Liga MX at Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles. The MLS bested Liga MX in penalty kicks, 3-2, after a 1-1 draw with Alex playing the entire first half at right back.

 

The 2021 WAC Men's Soccer Tournament will feature the top six teams on November 10, 12, 14 at GCU Stadium in Phoenix. The top two teams in the regular-season standings will receive byes straight to the semifinals.