GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – As conference play gets underway, the Colorado Mesa men's soccer team takes to the road for a pair of tough Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference contests. First up, the Maverick men will take on the Thunderwolves of CSU Pueblo Friday, then head back up to UCCS to meet up with the Mountain Lions on Sunday.
Friday's game will kick off at 4 p.m., while Sunday's game will open at 2:30 p.m. Live stats and broadcasts are linked above.
Weekend Recap
Rounding out a five-game road swing the Mavericks headed to Westminster for a Wednesday evening matchup, bouncing back from a loss the previous weekend with a 2-0 shutout over the Griffins.
Nearly matched shot for shot, the Mavericks were able to find the twine with two out of their three shots on goal.
Alec Fronapfel brought his season total to four with a brace in the 21
st minute.
Aaron Martinez was in on the score, taking the original shot that had enough force to bounce off the keeper and to an awaiting Fronapfel who tucked it away.
In the closing minutes of the first half,
Jannick Lange put in an insurance goal timing a throw in from
Raymond Jackson and a soft touch from
Jorge Rodriguez, giving the team a 2-0 lead.
The goals would hold up in the second half, despite the Griffins fending off any Maverick shots on goal.
With one game left in their non-conference slew of games, the Mavericks returned home to face a feisty Fort Lewis squad.
On a penalty kick from
Gabriel Peres, the Mavericks got on scoreboard first. However, with scores in the 36 and 60
th-minutes, the Skyhawks came from behind to stun the Mavs and steal a win.
CMU took twice as many shots, and led in all but the saves category.
A Look at the Herd
Just eight games in the Mavericks have tallied 17 goals, to their opponents six, averaging just over two goals a match. With 113 shots taken for an average of 14.13 per game, the Mavs are evenly matched with Colorado School of Mines, having targeted 54 shots on goal.
As a team, CMU has six game winning goals, one equalizer and have been the first to strike on seven different occasions. With help from 10 different players, the Mavs 15 assists also ranks at the top of the conference.
With four goals in seven games,
Alec Fronapfel is among six players who also have four tallies thus far.
John Roberts and
Raymond Jackson each have three assists to their name, ranking second and third in the conference.
Connor Durant maintains the top spots in the shutouts category with four, with 26 saves on the young season.
Season Two
Head coach
Jon Fridal enters his first fall season at the helm of Colorado Mesa men's soccer. Hired in December of 2020, he coached the Mavericks throughout the condensed 2021 spring season where the team finished 5-0-1 in conference play and earned hosting rights to the RMAC Tournament. The team appeared in the championship match, finishing the season with a 6-1-1 record.
After capturing a share of the RMAC regular season title, Fridal was named RMAC Coach of the Year.
Ethan Anderson and
Brendan Brown also headlined the postseason honors, grabbing Co-Defensive Player of the Year and Goalkeeper of the Year.
Along with Anderson and Brown, Fridal coached two other RMAC First Team members in
Daisuke Takanaka and
Alec Fronapfel, with
Isa Trujillo rounding out the honorees on the All-RMAC Honorable Mention team.
In addition to their on-field accomplishments, eight players picked up RMAC All-Academic Honors, and two being named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District team.
RMAC Preseason Poll
The Maverick men picked up five first-place votes and were favored in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Preseason Poll. Colorado School of Mines matched the Mavericks first-place votes, both teams expected to finish at the top of conference.
The Orediggers came in at No. 8 in the United Soccer Coaches (USC) preseason poll, and have since moved up to No. 4. CSU Pueblo took the No. 3 spot, followed by Fort Lewis who picked up a first-place vote, coming in at No. 4.
United Soccer Coaches Poll
Following an impressive 6-1-1 spring season, that saw the Mavericks capture a share of the RMAC Regular season title, the United Soccer Coaches preseason poll saw CMU come in at No. 21.
The most recent USC poll put the Mavericks in the receiving votes category. Moving into the rankings from the RMAC was CSU Pueblo, who previously unranked, came in at No. 19 in week 4.
Looking Ahead
CSU Pueblo (7-1-0)
With big wins over Colorado School of Mines and Regis, the CSU Pueblo Thunderwolves are riding a three-game win streak. CSUP has just one loss on the season, falling to Lubbock Christian in overtime back on Sept. 12.
The team's most recent win came by a 1-0 decision in double-overtime over Regis last Sunday. Lamar Bynum was behind the decision maker, scoring in the 104
th-minute.
Bynum's heroics earned him RMAC Defensive Player of the Week, alongside Garrett Wild who took home Goalkeeper of the Week.
Vinzent Zingel leads the team with four goals and an assist, rightfully so as one of the conference's leading shot takers. Defensively, the Thunderwolves backline has held strong allowing opponents three goals and under ten shots per game.
UCCS Mountain Lions (4-2-1)
Following Friday's contest, the Mavericks will head up the I-25 to Colorado Springs, to matchup with a 4-2-1 Mountain Lions squad. In their final weekend of non-conference play, UCCS finished 1-1 with a shutout over Adams State, before a setback by Colorado Christian.
Midfielder, Kolby Raineri's attack mentality puts him atop the conference leaderboard with 25 shots, 14 targeted on goal. His shot total, along with two assists leads the team with three goals
tied for most on the team.
Andreas Kokoska has been the go-to between the posts, logging over 650-minutes making 18 saves.
