St. Cloud State Men’s Soccer Opens 2023 Season in Colorado

Friday, September 1

Lakewood, Colo.

2:00 P.M. CT

St. Cloud State

Colorado Christian

Senior Cullen McSweeney

St. Cloud State Men’s Soccer Opens 2023 Season in Colorado

8/31/2023 4:00:00 PM | Men's Soccer

SCSU opens against Colorado Christian on Friday, MSU-Denver on Sunday

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – The St. Cloud State Men's Soccer team will open the 2023 campaign with a road trip to Colorado this weekend. The Huskies will face Colorado Christian on Friday, Sept. 1 and Metropolitan State University of Denver on Sunday, Sept. 3. Friday's season opener is slated to start at 1 p.m. MT local time and 2 p.m. CT, while Sunday's match will begin at 11 a.m. MT / 12 p.m. CT.

FOLLOW THE HUSKIES
Friday's game will be streamed live on the RMAC Network while Sunday's will be streamed live on Roadrunners TV, Live stats will be covered by each home team. Links to coverage options for both matches can be found on the St. Cloud State Men's Soccer schedule page.

SERIES HISTORY
This is the second consecutive season that the SCSU nonconference schedule has included Colorado Christian. The Huskies hosted Colorado Christian last year on Sept. 3 and fell 3-0. Sunday's match against MSU-Denver will be the first ever meeting between the two programs.

SCOUTING COLORADO CHRISTIAN
The Cougars, led by fifth-year head coach Brad Camp, are coming off an 8-7-4 season in 2022 in which they made the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Tournament for the first time in program history. The matchup with the Huskies will also be CCU's first game of 2023. The Cougars return their top three goal scorers in senior forward Gabe Roloff, junior forward Adrien Diez and junior midfielder Lucca Casci who scored five, four, and three goals respectively. Like the Huskies, CCU will have a new starting goalkeeper this year after graduating senior Max Collingwood, who started the last 13 games. Last year the Cougars had a strong home-field advantage, posting a record of 5-1-2 when playing at Trailblazer Stadium. Colorado Christian was picked to finish eighth in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll.

SCOUTING MSU-DENVER
Fourth-year head coach Nick Kirchhof leads the Roadrunners into the 2023 season after helping the team post a record of 10-6-2 last year. The Roadrunners return nine starters from last season, including their three top goal scorers - junior midfielder Adan Perez, junior forward Aaron Biggerstaff, senior forward Aidan Bates who scored five, five, and four goals respectively. They also return graduate student goalkeeper Ross Miller who started all 18 matches last year and has played every minute in goal since he joined the program in 2021. MSU-Denver posted a 6-3-2 record while playing at home last season. The Roadrunners open their season on Thursday Aug. 31, traveling to Hays, Kansas to face perennial power Fort Hays State. MSU-Denver was picked to finish seventh in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll.

FIRST TIME IN THE MILE HIGH | COLORFUL COLORADO
St. Cloud State is making the program's first ever trip to Colorado this weekend. The two-game road trip is a homecoming of sorts for fifth-year defender Evan Stearns who is from nearby, Thornton.

TOP RETURNERS
The Huskies enter the 2023 season with a roster that returns plenty of experience.

MIDFIELD MAESTROS

A bulk of the returners come from the midfield and they include Philip Caputo, Zinedine Kroeten, Noah Kantorowicz and Nolan Pratumwon. Caputo is coming off a breakout season in which he earned Second Team All-GLIAC honors after leading the team in points and sharing the team lead in goals scored. Kroeten started all 17 games for SCSU last season and is one of six fifth-year and graduate student athletes on the team. Pratumwon earned Honorable Mention All-GLIAC honors and shined as a leader in the Huskies midfield.

BACKLINE BOYS

Providing experience on the backline are defenders Vukota Mastilovic and Noah Eklund. Mastilovic, a vocal leader and captain of last year's team, started every game for the Huskies and led the team in minutes played. He also led all defenders in goals and points.

JACK OF ALL TRADES

Standout sophomores Owen Worsdell and Rhys Ward join senior Cullen McSweeney as athletes with the ability to play in the midfield and on the backline, providing positional versatility along with quality experience. Worsdell started all 17 games and tied for the team lead in goals while leading the team outright in shots, shots on goal and game winning goals. He was also second on the team in points and logged the third most minutes amongst players in the field. Ward appeared in every game and made 14 starts, establishing himself as one of the GLIAC's top young defenders. McSweeney missed the 2022 season due to injury but looks to reestablish the strong presence he made in 2021 when he started every game for the Huskies and logged the third most minutes.

Another versatile player the Huskies have back this year is graduate student Charlie Pritchard. Pritchard has spent time playing in every third of the field and will look to provide creativity up top for the Huskies as he transitions to becoming a forward for the 2023 season.

NEW FACES
St. Cloud State will have 12 newcomers take the field in 2023. Three of the new Huskies are Wisconsin natives, and they are joined by two from Minnesota. There are one each from Washington, North Dakota, Michigan and Florida. Also joining them are international student athletes from Austria, Australia, and Ontario, Canada. Below is a look at the 12 who will wear the Husky Jersey for the first time.

Midfielder Max Binder (Bad Fischau-Brunn, Austria)
Goalkeeper Dylan De Baldo (Vancouver, Wash.)
Goalkeeper JJ Dufner (Minot, N.D.)
Midfielder Omar Hadzimujic (Grand Rapids, Mich.)
Midfielder Andrew Holmes (St. Cloud, Minn.)
Goalkeeper Woody Holmes (Brisbane, Australia)
Defender Alesio Kacaj (Toronto, Ontario)
Midfielder Johan Lopez (Baraboo, Wis.)
Midfielder Ronaldo Lopez (Baraboo, Wis.)
Forward Jonas Luskey Sanders (Madison, Wis.)
Defender Mahmood Maldonado (Mankato, Minn.)
Defender Juan Villegas (Miami, Fla.)

GLIAC PRESEASON POLL
St. Cloud State Men's Soccer was picked to finish sixth in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Preseason Coaches' Poll. The Huskies earned seven points in the poll to land sixth after making it to the conference tournament for the first time in the program's two-year existence last season. Saginaw Valley State earned 25 points and five first place votes to land atop the poll, followed by UW-Parkside (21 points and one first place vote), Davenport (17 points), Purdue Northwest (11 points) and Northern Michigan (nine points).

For all the latest on St. Cloud State Men's Soccer, stay tuned to SCSUHuskies.com and follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.