St. Cloud State Men’s Soccer Prepares for First Conference Road Trip

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – St. Cloud State Men's Soccer is set to make its first conference road trip of the 2023 season this weekend. The Huskies play Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) opponents UW-Parkside (2-1-2, 0-0-1 GLIAC) on Friday, Sept. 22 and Purdue Northwest (3-0-3, 0-0-1 GLIAC) on Sunday, Sept. 24. Friday's match kicks off at 11 a.m. CT and the match on Sunday is slated to begin at 2 p.m. CT.

FOLLOW THE HUSKIES
Friday's match will be streamed live on FloSports (FloFC) and Sunday's will be streamed live on JEDtv - Friday's Stream / Sunday's Stream (note - paid membership is required for the Friday Stream). 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.

LAST TIME OUT
St. Cloud State (0-4-2) opened up GLIAC play 0-1-1 last weekend at home. SCSU tied preseason favorites, Saginaw Valley State, 0-0 on Friday and fell to Davenport on Sunday, 2-1. Noah Kantorowicz (Minneapolis) scored the Huskies lone goal throughout the weekend, during Sunday's match.

SERIES HISTORY
The Huskies have played UW-Parkside four times over the past two seasons. In 2022, SCSU lost the first matchup 5-2 on the road and tied the second game, 2-2 at home. Vukota Mastilovic (Belgrade, Serbia) scored a goal in the first match and Philip Caputo (Eagan, Minn.) recorded a brace in the second. The Huskies hold a 0-3-1 all-time record against UWP.

St. Cloud State has also matched up against Purdue Northwest four times over the past two years. Last year, the Huskies split the two matchups against PNW, with each team winning on the road. Owen Worsdell (Brighton, England) scored a goal that was assisted by Zinedine Kroeten (St. Louis Park, Minn.) in the first game, a 2-1 loss at Husky Stadium. In the second game, a 3-2 win in Hammond, Worsdell recorded a brace and one of his goals was assisted by Mastilovic and Kroeten. The Huskies hold an all-time record of 2-2-0 against PNW.

SCOUTING UW-PARKSIDE
The Rangers, led by 13th year head coach Jason Zitzke, are coming off an 12-4-4 season in 2022 in which they finished second in the GLIAC regular season standings with a record of 7-1-4. UWP made the NCAA Tournament as an at-large bid and was given the No. 10 seed. The Rangers advanced to the Sweet 16 after upsetting No. 7 seed UIndy and No. 2 seed Ashland before falling to No. 3 seed, Maryville. This season UW-Parkside was picked to finish second in the GLIAC Preseason Coaches' Poll tallying 21 total points – they also received one first place vote. In the United Soccer Coaches (USC) Poll, UWP was ranked No. 17 in the preseason poll and No. 6 in the week one poll after starting its season 2-0-0. After a draw and a loss to nationally ranked teams brought the Rangers record to 2-1-1, they were among teams to receive votes in the week two poll. UWP's record now sits at 2-1-2 after opening GLIAC play with a 1-1 draw against Purdue Northwest last Sunday.

Individually, the Rangers are led by redshirt freshman midfielder, Alejandro Martinez and redshirt junior midfielder, Bryan Torres, who have scored three and two goals respectively. Martinez was the week one GLIAC Offensive Player of the Week after scoring two goals – both game-winners – in the team's first two games. Senior midfielder, Edgar Heredia Victoria and junior midfielder/defender, Julian Villalobos have stood out as the top distributors, recording three and two assists respectively. Redshirt sophomore goalkeeper, Daniyal Rana has played every available minute between the posts for UWP, making 17 saves.

SCOUTING PURDUE NORTHWEST
First-year head coach, Luke Dunn leads the Pride into the 2023 season. Last season, PNW compiled a 6-8-4 overall recording, and posted a 5-5-2 conference record, finishing fourth in the GLIAC regular season standings. This year, Purdue Northwest was picked to finish fourth in the GLIAC Preseason Coaches' Poll and have opened the season 3-0-3. In the second poll released by the USC, PNW was among the teams that received votes. Last Sunday, the Pride opened GLIAC play with a 1-1 draw against UW-Parkside.

The standout players for PNW this season have been senior forward, Hugo Lorenzo, who has six goals and one assist and senior forward, Jacob Battista, who has three goals and one assist. Lorenzo has scored in five of six matches and earned back-to-back GLIAC Offensive Player of the Week honors. During the two-week stretch, he scored five goals in four games with one assist. Senior goalkeeper Eligh Williams has posted a 3-0-2 record with two clean sheets and a 0.60 goals against average. Williams earned GLIAC Defensive Player of the Week honors in week two.

THE LION KING
Owen Worsdell scored three goals in two games against the Purdue Northwest Pride in his debut season for the Huskies last year. He became the second player in program history to have a multi-goal game when he scored two goals in the October 7 match.

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.

St. Cloud State Men’s Soccer Prepares for First Conference Road Trip

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Players Mentioned

Philip Caputo

Noah Kantorowicz

Zinedine Kroeten

Vukota Mastilovic

Owen Worsdell

Saint Cloud State University Athletics