GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Colorado Mesa men's soccer added two more wins to its RMAC record and ran its unbeaten streak to nine matches, including a significant triumph over Colorado School of Mines.

Up ahead, CMU will have its only Wednesday match of the regular season as the Mavericks will head west to Salt Lake City to take on Westminster at 7 p.m. before going over the mountains to face Colorado Christian on October 15.

The two upcoming matches will kick off a stretch of four straight conference road games for the Mavericks before CMU has its final two RMAC games at home on October 27-29.

Looking Back
The Mavericks notched a back-and-forth 3-2 win over Colorado School of Mines last Friday, beating the Orediggers in the regular season for the first time since 2016 before hanging on for a 1-0 win over MSU Denver.

RECAPS: Colorado School of Mines | MSU Denver

Manuel Ponce Casas scored the game-winning goal in both matches. Fernando Morales and Lluis Fabregat also found the net in the Mines game. Goalkeeper Diego Chavez was the primary hero in the MSU Denver win, making six of his eight saves in the second half to preserve the clean sheet and victory.

Defensive Standouts
Two members of CMU's regular back line were honored by the conference office Tuesday as the Mavs won two out of the RMAC's three weekly awards.

RMAC Player of the Week Release

Diego Chavez won his third RMAC Goalkeeper of the Week award after recording two wins in net, including an eight-save shutout in a 1-0 win over MSU Denver. Chavez has won half of the six Goalkeeper of the Week awards handed out this season. He leads the RMAC with 60 total saves.

Lluis Fabregat was named the RMAC Defensive Player of the Week. Fabregat's honor is the first of the defender's career and the first of the season for a CMU outfield player. Fabregat helped in the defensive effort in both the shutout against MSU Denver and the win over Colorado School of Mines, in which he played the full 90 minutes for the fourth time this season. Fabregat scored his first collegiate goal last Thursday, giving CMU a 2-1 lead over Mines.

Fabregat has been an unexpected contributor to the Colorado Mesa back line. A native of Tortosa, Spain, Fabregat is currently studying abroad in the United States and has one season of NCAA eligibility as an exchange student. Despite not joining the CMU roster until days before the first game of the season, Fabregat has taken over the left back job for the Mavericks and has started nine out of the 10 matches he has played in.

Heating Up
Last season's leading scorer, Manuel Ponce Casas, began the year as more of a playmaker but has returned to being the team's primary goalscoring threat.

Ponce Casas has scored in four of CMU's last five contests and now has five goals and five assists this season. On the team, Ponce Casas ranks second behind Fernando Morales in goals and leads the team in assists and points (15). The sophomore forward is tied for third in the RMAC in points, second in the conference with four game-winning goals and tied for sixth in the RMAC with 26 shots.

Getting Chilly
With a series of injuries to many of their center backs, the Mavericks moved Raymond Jackson inside from right back into the center in both of last week's games. That allowed redshirt freshman Connor Chilson to make the first two starts of his career this past week, and the Vista, California native impressed.

Chilson logged 144 minutes against Mines and MSU Denver after totaling 36 career minutes in three appearances before last week. Chilson assisted on Fernando Morales' game-opening goal against Colorado School of Mines with a wonderfully weighted cross from the right side. Chilson then played a career-high 82 minutes as CMU kept a shutout against MSU Denver.

Unbeaten Streak
Since suffering a pair of 1-0 losses to nationally ranked opponents Midwestern State and Northwest Nazarene, CMU has embarked on a nine-game unbeaten streak, going 7-0-2 in that span.

The nine-game streak is currently the fourth-longest in program history. The Mavs had a 16-game unbeaten streak in 2016 (going 13-0-3) and 12-game streaks in both 2014 (12-0-0) and 2018 (9-0-3). It is the longest unbeaten streak in head coach Jon Fridal's tenure, with the 2023 Mavs surpassing streaks from the 2021 team (eight games) and the 2020 team (seven games) this past weekend.

In the Polls
Colorado Mesa is listed among teams receiving votes in the United Soccer Coaches national poll.  This is the second straight week and third overall week this season that CMU has received that designation.

Colorado Mesa rose a spot to No. 4 in the USC South Central Regional Rankings, trailing Midwestern State (national No. 2), CSU-Pueblo (national No. 5) and UT-Tyler (national No. 18). Colorado Mesa leads St. Mary's (Texas), Fort Lewis, West Texas A&M, Westminster (Wednesday's opponent), Lubbock Christian and UCCS in the 10-team regional rankings.

Colorado Mesa was picked to finish fourth in the preseason Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Coaches Poll, garnering 64 total points.

CSU Pueblo finished atop the poll with 97 points and seven of 11 first-place votes. Colorado School of Mines received 86 points and two first-place votes after winning the RMAC regular season and tournament titles last year, with UCCS just behind with 83 points and one first-place vote. Regis garnered the final first-place vote, but still finished just behind the Mavericks in fifth with 62 total points.

About Westminster
Westminster was picked sixth in the preseason RMAC Coaches Poll. The team is out to a 6-4-2 start with a promising 3-1 record in the RMAC. The Griffins played two games in Grand Junction earlier this year, tying Eastern New Mexico 3-3 and defeating then-nationally ranked Northwest Nazarene 2-1 as part of the Colorado Mesa Kickoff Showcase.

In conference play, Westminster has tallied wins over South Dakota Mines, Regis and MSU Denver while losing to Colorado School of Mines. The Griffins beat Mines and lost to UCCS in nonconference matches.

Sophomore forward Jack Cardwell leads the Griffins offensively with four goals, finding the net in both games in Grand Junction earlier this season and scoring against South Dakota Mines and Regis. Armin Hasanovic leads the team with two assists and has three goals of his own. The Griffins have split time between two goalkeepers this season. Noah Larkin has played five matches in net and has kept three shutouts, ultimately allowing five goals while making 28 saves. Roark Looney has played seven matches and has conceded nine while making 19 saves.

Head Coach Josh Pittman is in his eighth season at Westminster. Pittman was previously the first men's soccer coach in Colorado Mesa program history from 2007-2013, leading the Mavs to an RMAC Tournament Championship in 2013, and spent a year as the head coach at Dixie State (now Utah Tech) in 2015. Pittman earned the 2018 RMAC Coach of the Year award with Westminster in the Griffins' first full year as an active Division II member.

Colorado Mesa has controlled the all-time series for the most part, holding a 14-3-2 record against Westminster. One of those two losses came in the last meeting, however, as the Griffins got a 3-1 win over CMU in Salt Lake last October. The Mavericks won a nonconference matchup earlier in 2022 at home by a 4-2 margin. That match featured four penalty kick goals, two for each team.

About Colorado Christian
Colorado Christian was picked eighth in the RMAC preseason poll. The Cougars had likely the most successful season in program history last year, finishing sixth in conference to qualify for the RMAC Tournament for the first time ever and recording a monumental upset of then-No. 3 and eventual national runners-up CSU Pueblo.

The Cougars are 3-3-5 overall and are 1-1-2 in the RMAC. Colorado Christian has defeated Adams State and lost to CSU Pueblo while tying with Fort Lewis on the road and UCCS at home. The Cougars previously traveled to Grand Junction to face CMU for a nonconference game back on September 24, which the Mavericks won 2-0.

Low scoring, physical battles have been the hallmark of CCU this year, as in 11 matches in 2023 the Cougars have scored nine times while allowing only eight goals. Drew Najarro has three of CCU's nine goals along with an assist and is the only Cougar to score more than once. Goalkeeper Michel Pinoncely has played every minute in net and has a 0.73 goals-against average while making 28 saves against eight goals conceded.

Colorado Christian head coach Brad Camp is in his fifth year. Taking over a program that won one game in back-to-back seasons prior to his arrival, Camp has turned the Cougars into a conference contender. CCU won a school-record 10 games in 2021 and made the RMAC Tournament for the first time in 2022 by going 8-7-4 overall and 4-4-2 in the RMAC. Before CCU, Camp was an assistant coach at East Tennessee State and Maryville College.

The Cougars are looking up under Camp but have had a lot of lean seasons throughout their history and as such, the all-time series with CCU has been lopsided. Colorado Mesa is 22-0-2 all-time against the Cougars, only dropping points during a 1-1 tie in 2009 and a 1-1 tie with the 10-win CCU team in 2021.

Coach's Corner
Mavericks head coach Jon Fridal begins his fourth season at Colorado Mesa in 2023. He has already earned conference and regional coaching honors and taken the Mavericks to national success.

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. That led to a top-10 national preseason ranking for the team entering the 2022 season.

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