GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Colorado Mesa men's soccer secured a pair of positive results north of the border to put its record at 3-2-1 with only RMAC teams left on the regular season docket.

After recording a win and a draw this past weekend, Colorado Mesa merited a mention in the national polls for the first time this season, receiving votes in this week's United Soccer Coaches Top 25 National Poll.

The Mavericks have two "nonconference" games remaining, but both are against RMAC rivals in Regis and Colorado Christian. The Mavs face Regis on the road on Friday and host CCU for a home game on Sunday. Colorado Mesa will then open the official RMAC portion of their schedule with a home conference game against Regis on Thursday, September 28 and South Dakota Mines on Sunday, October 1.

Looking Back
Playing regular season games outside of the United States for the first time, CMU went 1-0-1 against a pair of GNAC schools in British Columbia.

RECAPS: Montana State Billings | Simon Fraser

The Mavericks came from behind to beat Montana State Billings 2-1 thanks to two goals from Alec Fronapfel. The redshirt senior forward scored twice in a four-minute span, both times flying through the air to get the decisive touch on a loose ball in front of goal.

The Mavs had a defensive hero against Simon Fraser rather than an offensive one. Diego Chavez made 13 saves in goal, more than doubling his career high, to preserve a 0-0 draw with the GNAC preseason projected champion Red Leafs. Chavez's performance allowed CMU to gain a point despite being outshot 22-8 in the match.

Weekly Honors
With 18 saves against just one goal conceded for the Mavs, Diego Chavez was a runaway choice for RMAC Goalkeeper of the Week, becoming the first CMU player to win an RMAC weekly award this season.

Chavez made five saves in the win over Montana State Billings before shattering his previous career-high of six with 13 saves against SFU. Against the Red Leafs, Chavez matched his previous career-high before halftime and made seven more stops in the second half.

In his first full season as CMU's starting goalkeeper, Chavez currently leads the RMAC and ranks third in the nation with 36 saves. Chavez ranks fourth in the RMAC with a 1.00 goals-against average but has recorded 180 more minutes in net than any of the three goalies ranked in front of him. He ranks second in the conference with an .857 save percentage.

Core Four
Last season, Colorado Mesa only had one player start every game during the 2022 season, the since-graduated Daisuke Takanaka. Through six games this season, four Maverick players have been on the pitch at every opening whistle.

Goalkeeper Diego Chavez has played every minute in goal for CMU, while redshirt senior defender and new captain Raymond Jackson is the only CMU outfield player to log all 540 possible minutes. Jackson has taken four shots and garnered two assists as a right back who frequently gets forward on offense.

Junior midfielder Matheus Lazzuri has emerged as the central cog in the Maverick midfield in place of former captain Colton Shafer, and Lazzuri has started all six matches while ranking third on the team with 503 minutes played. The Brazilian ranks tied for fourth on the team with six shots and has key defensive responsibilities as a holding midfielder.

Manuel Ponce Casas has started every match at center forward for Colorado Mesa, playing a total of 357 minutes. While the sophomore hasn't gotten out on quite the same goalscoring tear he did as a freshman (six goals in his first five matches in 2022), Ponce Casas still leads the team with six points and has functioned as a playmaker rather than a pure scorer. The Playa del Carmen, Mexico native leads the Mavs and ranks second in the RMAC with four assists in addition to finding the net once against Eastern New Mexico.

Keeping It Clean
Under head coach Jon Fridal, the Mavericks routinely have among the fewest fouls and cards in the RMAC, if not the nation, and the 2023 season is looking no different.

The Mavericks have the fewest fouls per game at 5.17 in the conference, over a full foul-per-game less than second-place Westminster (6.29) and over three less than third-place UCCS (8.29).

Colorado Mesa has six yellow cards and no red cards through six matches, tied with South Dakota Mines for the fewest total thus far. Adams State (nine) and Colorado School of Mines (eight) are the only other RMAC schools still in single digit yellows, with seven conference schools already having accumulated 10 or more.

Opposite ends of the spectrum will be on full display with CMU's two opponents this week, as Regis and Colorado Christian are tied with one another for the most yellow cards (21) and most reds (2, along with UCCS) in the conference.

The Mavericks' unwillingness to commit severe fouls doesn't mean their defense has struggled, however. Colorado Mesa has allowed six goals on the season, tied with reigning NCAA runners-up CSU Pueblo for the second-fewest conceded in the RMAC. Colorado Christian (one of the 21 yellow card/2 red card schools) has the RMAC's best defense with just two goals conceded in six matches, however, demonstrating that there's certainly more than one way to defend.

In the Polls
Colorado Mesa is listed as receiving votes in the latest United Soccer Coaches national poll for the first time this season. That means that CMU is just outside the cumulative Top 25 rankings but got a Top-25 vote on at least one voter's ballot. Colorado Mesa received the sixth-most votes out of seven schools listed in the "receiving votes" category.

Two RMAC teams are inside the national Top 25. CSU Pueblo is up to No. 3 overall, moving up one spot from No. 4 last week. UCCS fell from a previous No. 14 ranking after tying with Oklahoma Christian and losing to No. 13 Rogers State but holds on to a ranked spot at No. 25.

Colorado Mesa is up to fifth in the USC South Central regional rankings, leaping up from No. 10 last week. CSU Pueblo leads the regional rankings with Lone Star schools Midwestern State and St. Mary's rounding out the top three. UCCS (fourth), CMU (fifth), Westminster (seventh) and Fort Lewis (ninth) give the RMAC five of the 10 regional ranking spots.

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 Regis
Picked fifth in the RMAC preseason poll, one spot behind CMU, Regis is off a 2-4-1 start against a challenging nonconference schedule.

The Rangers have already faced three ranked opponents this season, all from the CCAA. Regis has lost to No. 2 Cal State LA and No. 14 Cal Poly Pomona and earned a 2-2 tie with No. 21 Cal State San Bernardino (ranked No. 9 at the time of meeting). The Rangers have beaten Azusa Pacific and Seattle Pacific and lost to a Western Washington team that tied for first in the GNAC Preseason Poll with the Simon Fraser team that the Mavericks just tied 0-0.

Regis has already played a game this week, losing 1-0 in a nonconference game to Colorado Christian on Wednesday. The Mavericks play Regis Friday and CCU Sunday.

Offensively, the Rangers are led by junior New Zealander Rayhan Carlson-Du Toit, who led the team with 13 goals last season and earned first team All-RMAC and All-South Central Region recognition. Carlson-Du Toit is one of three players with a team-high two goals so far in 2023 alongside graduate midfielders Michael Jimenez and Ben Shephard. Goalkeeper Greg Squire ranks third in the RMAC in total saves and sixth with a .724 save percentage. Regis does not have a clean sheet so far this season.

Taylor Diem, a former All-American and RMAC Defensive Player of the Year with Regis, is in his third season as the Rangers' head coach after spending three seasons as an assistant coach. Before returning to his alma mater, Diem was also an assistant coach at Johnson & Wales.

The Mavericks lead Regis 14-11-3 in the all-time series. Regis defeated the Mavericks 2-0 last season, snapping what had been a four-game CMU winning streak in the series. Regis and Colorado Mesa have had memorable postseason battles in recent memory, with the Mavericks defeating the Rangers in the RMAC Tournament Championship in 2016 and the semifinals on their way to another tournament crown in 2021.   

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.

This year, CCU is 2-1-3, thanks to a suffocating defense. The Cougars have only allowed two goals all season long, both against a Western Oregon side that handed them their only loss this year by a 2-0 margin.

Colorado Christian has kept clean sheets in its other five matches this season – a 3-0 win over William Jewell and three 0-0 ties prior to the team's 1-0 win over Regis on Wednesday. With the win earlier this week, CCU does not have another match prior to Sunday's game at CMU.

Freshman midfielder Devin Najarro leads CCU with a goal and an assist, both against William Jewell. Junior Drew Brown and sophomore AJ Gamueda also scored in that game. Junior defender Daniel Garciacano found the net for the 59^th-minute game-winner against Regis in a game that featured nine yellow cards. The Cougars closed out a win despite going a man down in the 69^th minute when a player received a second yellow card. Colorado Christian has played 28 minutes down a man this year.

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 21-0-2 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. The Mavericks have never failed to beat CCU in Grand Junction, including on last season's Senior Day, when CMU closed out the 2022 season with a 4-1 victory over the Cougars. This will be just the second-ever nonconference matchup between the schools.

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.