GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – After opening the week with a 2-1 loss to Fort Lewis. Colorado Mesa men's soccer broke through with five second-half goals against Adams State and will now hope better health leads to better play as the second half of the conference schedule approaches.

The Mavs now have a rare midweek game, facing Westminster on the road on Wednesday at 7 p.m., before returning home for a Sunday afternoon match against MSU Denver at 1 p.m.
Both matches can be streamed on the RMAC network or followed via live stats.

Looking Back
A short-handed Mavericks team made last week's road trip without several key contributors, including defenders Ethan Anderson and Raymond Jackson, midfielder Jannick Lange and leading scorer Manuel Ponce Casas.

The absences loomed large against Fort Lewis, when the Skyhawks put four shots on goal and scored twice in the first 21 minutes. David Peters scored his first goal of the season of a Leo Mireles corner kick to get the Mavs within a goal, but CMU couldn't equalize.

RECAPS: Fort Lewis | Adams State

Against a winless Adams State team, the Mavs poured it on late, scoring five times in the second half. Moses Magens had a goal and an assist while Moises Martinez also scored for the first time this year.

Wednesday Night Soccer
The Mavericks play their annual Wednesday night game against travel partners Westminster this week. The RMAC features one game every Wednesday between two schools that are near one another.

The two schools already played a non-conference contest earlier this year, with CMU winning 4-2 in a wild match that featured four penalty kicks and the Mavs' first red card in four years.

Ready to Go

Redshirt freshman goalkeeper Diego Chavez received the first start of his college career against Adams State and made the most of it, making three saves and recording a shutout.

Chavez, a native of Longmont, Colo., had appeared in relief of starter Connor Durant twice so far this year. In those two appearances plus Sunday's start, Chavez has not conceded a goal while making four saves in a combined 120:33 of work.

Breakout Coming
Alec Fronapfel, last season's leading scorer, has yet to find the net this season for CMU. But if there's an opponent on the schedule he would love to see, it would be Westminster. Fronapfel scored in three out of four appearances vs. Westminster over the 2020 and 2021 seasons, including a game-winner.

Fronapfel didn't get much of a chance against the Griffins in the opening meeting of 2022 as he played 25 minutes before being sent off by the referee.

Fronapfel also scored last season against Sunday opponent Metro State.

Action Packed
Redshirt freshman Stevie Koon appeared in his second game of his season and career against Adams State. While Koon has only logged 12 minutes this season, they have been extremely eventful. In his season debut back on September 8 vs. Montana State Billings, Koon was on the pitch for eight minutes and received a yellow card while drawing a red card foul from the opposition. Against Adams State, Koon played only the final four minutes, but was still able to log his first career assist on Fernando Morales' 88^th-minute goal.

Family Reunion
Each of this week's two games will feature a former CMU coach returning to Grand Junction. Josh Pittman, the current head coach of Westminster, was the inaugural head coach of the CMU men's soccer program from 2007-2013 while MSU Denver head coach Nick Kirchhof was an assistant on Pittman's staff with the Mavericks from 2008-2010. Pittman has only managed to go 2-10-2 against CMU while with the Griffins. Kirchhof is 0-2 all-time as a head coach against the Mavericks, losing 5-0 and 2-0 with Metro State over the past two seasons.

Conference Leaderboards
Colorado Mesa is second in the RMAC in goals (31), one behind leaders UCCS, and tied for third with 23 assists, one behind co-leaders UCCS and CSU Pueblo. The Mavericks goalkeepers rank sixth in the RMAC with a 1.42 goals-against average.

The Mavericks have also been the most disciplined team in the RMAC, collecting the fewest yellow  cards(12) and fourth-fewest fouls per game (8.83).

Individually, Manuel Ponce Casas ranks fifth in goals six while Fernando Morales is tied for ninth with four. Ponce Casas ranks third in the RMAC in points per game with 1.56 and second in shots on goal per game (1.67).

Coach's Corner
Mavericks head coach Jon Fridal is in his third season in charge at CMU, boasting a .783 winning percentage from the first two seasons.

In his first year, played in spring 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mavs went 6-1-1, including 5-0-1 in conference play, as Fridal took home RMAC Coach of the Year honors, becoming the second coach in the history of the program to do so.

In his first full campaign in the fall of 2021, Fridal led the Mavericks to a 16-4-2 record, a second place RMAC regular-season finish, an RMAC Tournament title and a win in the NCAA Tournament.

Along with assistant coach Brandon Bautista, Fridal was honored as the United Soccer Coaches South Central Regional Staff of the Year in 2021.

About Westminster
Westminster is currently 5-5-1 overall with a 2-1-1 RMAC record. As the Mavericks' travel partners, the Griffins have played the same conference opponents as CMU. Westminster managed a draw with current No. 7 CSU Pueblo and lost to UCCS before defeating Fort Lewis 3-0 and Adams State 4-0 this past week.

Redshirt senior midfielder Luke Merrill is Westminster's co-leading scorer with four goals and two assists. Two of his goals came in Westminster's most recent match against Fort Lewis. Forward Din Huremovic also has four goals and two assists, including a penalty kick against CMU.

Redshirt freshman Roark Looney has taken the starting goalkeeper job from incumbent Noah Larkin, who made only one save against four goals conceded in the first matchup with CMU. In seven starts, Looney has allowed 11 goals and made 19 saves for a 1.57 goals-against average and a 3-3-1 record. The Griffins have scored 21 goals this season and allowed 18. They rank ninth in the conference in shots with 111.

Westminster is led by seventh-year head coach Josh Pittman. Pittman has been with the Griffins since 2016 and won RMAC Coach of the Year honors in 2018 when Westminster finished second in the conference.  
 
Pittman was the first head coach in Colorado Mesa men's soccer history, piloting the Mavericks from their inaugural season in 2007 until 2013. Pittman finished his CMU tenure with an overall record of 54-62-17. He spent one season as the head coach of Dixie State in 2015. 
 
About MSU Denver
The Metro State Roadrunners are off to a hot start with a 8-2-2 overall record and a 2-1-1 mark in the RMAC, the program's best start since the 2000 season.

Last week, MSU Denver defeated Colorado Christian 1-0 on Friday and lost to Colorado School of Mines on Sunday. The Roadrunners had six wins and one tie in their previous seven matches prior to that loss.

Junior forward Aidan Bates has been MSU Denver's primary playmaker with four goals and five assists, which is tied for second in the RMAC. Sophomore Aaron Biggerstaff also has four goals, which all came in the first seven matches of the season. Midfielder Noah Hannula, who started 16 matches for the Roadrunners last season, missed the beginning of the season with injury but scored the goal against Colorado Christian last week in his first start of the year.

Goalkeeper Ross Miller has been the star of the show this season for Metro State. The senior netminder has made 44 saves and kept six shutouts. Miller has been named the RMAC Goalkeeper of the Week three out of a possible six times this season.

Miller and the Roadrunner defense have only allowed eight goals, tied for the second fewest in the RMAC, and have the second highest save percentage of .846. Metro State ranks fifth in the RMAC with 22 goals scored.

Head coach Nick Kirchhof is in his third season in charge of the Roadrunners program. Last year, Metro State finished fifth in the RMAC to book its first trip to the RMAC tournament since 2008.

Kirchhof appeared in two Division II national championship games as a player with RMAC school Fort Lewis, including a championship win in 2005. He had an assistant coaching stint at Colorado Mesa from 2008-2010 under former head coach Josh Pittman, then was a Division I assistant coach at the University of Denver for one year and Stanford for five years. Kirchhof was on staff for the Cardinal's back-to-back national titles in 2015 and 2016.

Series Histories
Colorado Mesa has been dominant traditionally against Westminster, going 14-2-2 in the all-time series, a mark that includes their 4-2 victory earlier this year. The Mavericks are 6-1 all-time at Dumke Field in Salt Lake City.

The Mavericks went 2-0 against the Griffins in the 2021 season, notching a pair of 2-0 wins. Alec Fronapfel scored in both games, with Daisuke Takanaka and Jannick Lange also scoring. Current assistant coach Ramses Atahualpa scored a double-overtime game-winner on a free kick to sink the Griffins in the spring 2021 season.

The Mavericks record against MSU Denver is fairly even, with CMU holding a slim 12-11-5 advantage, but there has been one dominant run of results for each school.

The Roadrunners stormed out to a 9-0-1 lead in the first ten meetings between the two schools before CMU notched their first-ever win, a 2-1 triumph in overtime, during the 2011 season. After a few years of back-and-forth results, CMU has dominated in recent years. The Mavericks are unbeaten in the last 11 matches against MSU Denver, a streak that includes eight wins and a current streak of seven consecutive wins.

Colorado Mesa recorded a 5-0 win over MSU Denver last season, with Fernando Morales scoring twice and Alec Fronapfel, Jannick Lange and Colton Shafer also getting on the scoresheet.