GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The Colorado Mesa men's soccer team will host Fort Lewis College this Thursday at 3 pm at Walker Field in the quarterfinals of the 2019 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament. The Mavericks finished the RMAC season with an 8-3-3 record and a third place finish to earn the #3 seed in the RMAC Tournament. Fort Lewis will come to Walker Field as the #5 seed after finishing the season 8-4-2.
Senior Lawan Abary leads the Mavericks with five goals and has taken a team high 30 shots and 17 shots on goal. Freshman Alec Fronapfel has registered four goals in just nine shots on goal for a 60.0 shots on goal percentage. He holds the highest shots on goal percentage by any Maverick who has netted a goal.
Brendan Brown holds the conference's highest saves percentage at 85.3 percent and the lowest goals against average at 0.60.
RMAC Tournament History
The Mavericks are 6-6-2 in the RMAC Tournament since qualifying for the first time in 2010. They have qualified for the tournament the past nine consecutive years and were crowned RMAC Tournament Champions in 2016 and 2013.
They have advanced to the championship game the past two consecutive seasons, but lost to Colorado School of Mines each season.
Last Time Out
In the Maverick's most recent game against Adams State, Niall Shaffery recorded his second goal of the season. Atahualpa assisted the lone goal and recorded his fifth assists of the season. The Lima, Peru native has totaled the sixth most assists per game in the RMAC. He recorded a season high six shots against Adams State and put one shot on frame.
Brendan Brown recorded three saves to shutout the Grizzlies and has now totaled 58 assists on the year.
James Scasserra recorded his second start of the season and recorded one shot.
Scouting Fort Lewis
Thursday's match will be the third meeting this season between the Mavericks and the Skyhawks. The teams tied in each of the previous two contest. When they first played, Fronapfel scored in the second half to send the game into overtime after tying the game at 1-1during the 83rd minute. In their second match both teams were scoreless posting a 0-0 result.
Loic Jean-Baptiste who has six goals this season leads the Skyhawks and is tied with Ryan Lee for 13 points. Lee has the second most goals on the team at five and is tied with two other players who have netted five goals including Brantley Bice who leads the team in points at 14 (five goals, four assists).
As a team, the Skyhawks are averaging 1.50 goals per game and limiting opponents to 1.00 goal per game.
Peter Bryne, the Skyhawk's starting goalkeeper has the third highest saves percentage in the RMAC at 82.5 percent.
Up Next
With a win the Mavericks will advance to semi-finals and face Regis University on Sunday, November 10.
