GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – After enjoying the opening weekend at home, the Colorado Mesa men's soccer team will face their first road tests this weekend, heading up to Nampa, Idaho to faceoff with MSU Billings and host, Northwest Nazarene.

The team will open the weekend on Thursday, meeting up with the Yellowjackets of MSU Billings set to kickoff at 3 p.m. Game two will feature the Mavericks versus the hosts, Northwest Nazarene. Game time scheduled for Saturday (Sept. 11) at 3 p.m. MST.

A live stream and stats will be provided for both games at the links provided above.

Weekend Recap
With a fairly quick turnaround from their spring season, Maverick men's soccer got their fall season off to a hot start, posting two key wins over regional opponents.

In their season opener against Texas Permian Basin, three different players contributed goals to lift CMU to a shutout over the Falcons. After going scoreless for the first 80-minutes of play, the Mavs went on a scoring run putting together all three goals together in the closing 10-minutes.
I
sa Trujillo connected first, heading the team's first goal past the Falcon keeper in the 79^th minute. Nearly a minute and a half later, Alec Fronapfel teamed up with John Roberts to put the team up by two.

Under five minutes left to play, Chris Boyd set up Joey Joiner, who sent the team's third and final goal into the back of the net.

The succeeding game was decided by just one goal, and took extra minutes to decide a victor. In a fight to the finish, the Mavericks came out on top of battle with the Dustdevils of Texas A&M International, 1-0 in overtime.

Alec Fronapfel netted the golden goal in the 94^th minute, Demetrio Baldo and Boyd being credited with the assists. Raymond Jackson took a running approach on a throw in, sending it into the box where the winning play ensued.

Headers by Baldo and Boyd, set up Fronapfel who's bicycle kick sailed just out of the keeper's reach to end it all.

Week One Honors
Senior midfielder, Chris Boyd posed as a dual threat for the Mavs, defensively keeping opponents scoreless, while creating opportunities for the offense, finishing the weekend with two assists. His final assist resulted in the overtime game-winning goal that secured the win over TAMIU, earning him RMAC Defensive Player of the Week.

New Face in the Net
Redshirt junior, Connor Durant shined in his debut weekend, recording two shutouts in his first collegiate starts. Against UTPB he made five saves, adding seven more in the TAMIU thriller, earning him RMAC Goalkeeper of the Week. 

He faced 24 shots, making 12 stops to average 6.00 saves per game, which sits atop the conference leaderboard in both categories. 

Scoring Streak
Sophomore forward, Alec Fronapfel has extended his scoring streak to five games, after his heroics in the TAMIU game.

The streak started back on April 17, when he netted two goals in a 5-0 win over Regis, which seized a share of the RMAC Regular season title.

The scoring continued on for the next two games, which included his hat trick in the RMAC Tournament final against Mines. With his two goals over the weekend, his career total rises to 14, putting him just shy of the top-5 in the career record books.

His eight during the spring season, ranks 9^th in the all-time season records.

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.

Moving Up the Ranks
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.

Win two wins over regional opponents and 2-0 start to the season, the recent USC poll moved the Mavs up to No. 16. Colorado School of Mines, is the only other RMAC school receiving national recognition.

Looking Ahead
MSU Billings Yellowjackets
MSU Billings will meet up with the Mavs following a road trip throughout Colorado, where they finished 1-1-1. In a neutral site contest, held on Maverick Field, the Yellowjackets came out with a 3-2 overtime victory over TAMIU, fueled by three goals from Halil Yilmaz.

The Yellowjackets continued on to southern Colorado where they hit a snag in a 1-0 decision to CSU Pueblo, and then battled to draw against UC Colorado Springs.

On the weekend, Yilmaz accounted for eight of the team's shots, five on goal and his hat trick in the season opener earned him GNAC Player of the Week. Marvin Putu was the other player putting pressure on goal, taking five shots, three
focused between the frame.

Georgio Theodoulidis acquired the start in goal, grabbing 11 official saves in 41 shots faced.

Tabbed fourth in the coaches' preseason poll, MSUB logged just two contests in the spring season going 1-0-1. The 2019 campaign saw the Yellowjackets finish with a 8-9-2 record overall, 5-6-1 in conference play, finishing fourth in he GNAC.

Northwest Nazarene Nighthawks
Northwest Nazarene plays host for the weekend's contests, finishing week one with a 1-1 record.

A fellow member of the GNAC, the Nighthawks played neutral site games against San Francisco State and Humboldt State to start the season. Behind goals from Sebastian Cotrau, Jake Levine and Nils Knosala, NNU captured their first win, 3-1 over San Francisco State.

Humboldt State would hand NNU their first loss by a 4-0 score in game two of the weekend.

=Tied for fifth in their respective preseason poll, they completed seven games in the spring season going 4-2-1. They return nine of their 11 starters from a season ago, many of whom contributed significant points for the team.