St. Cloud State Men’s Soccer Kicks Off Four-Game Homestand with Home Opener Against Upper Iowa

St. Cloud, Minn.- St. Cloud State Men's Soccer (0-2-0) will host their first game of the season at Husky Stadium as they take on Upper Iowa (0-1-1) on Friday, September 13. The Huskies will be back in action on Tuesday, September 17 as they face off against Jamestown (1-3-1). Friday's home opener is set for 7:00 p.m. and Tuesday's game is also slated for 7:00 p.m.

Gameday Promotions
Prior to Friday's home opener, schedule posters will be given away at the entrance of Husky Stadium.

Follow the Huskies
Tickets to the game are available at scsutickets.com. Both games will be streamed on Flo Sports (registration required). Live stats will be provided by SCSU. Links for each game can be found on the St. Cloud State Men's Soccer Schedule.

Last Time Out
The Huskies opened their season this past week with two road games against Truman State and St. Thomas.

In their season opener against Truman State, St. Cloud State battled the Bulldogs at an even score for the first 74 minutes of play. TSU would find the back of the net in the 75th minute after goalkeeper Ramy Atia saved a shot attempt, but Daniel Riazi kicked in the ball off the rebound to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead. St. Cloud State was unable to score in the remaining 15 minutes as they dropped their season opener to Truman State 1-0.

Saturday's game against St. Thomas saw the Huskies quickly fall into an 0-1 hole after the Tommy's scored in the second minute of the game. The teams continued to battle until Yanis Smeg and Mika Folstad set up Philip Captuo deep in the box where he scorched a shot past Mortiz Krenc to tie the game at 1-1 in 22nd minute. No scoring would occur the rest of the half as the teams would go into the break knotted at 1-1. St. Thomas started the second half like they did in the first half with a goal four minutes into the second half to take a 2-1 lead. SCSU created scoring opportunities in the second half and eventually cracked through the Tommy's defense a second time as Mika Folstad scored his first career goal off of assists by Rhys Ward and Matt Greenland to tie the game at 2-2 in the 77th minute. The momentum for the Huskies did not last long as St. Thomas kicked in the game-winning goal three minutes later as they ultimately defeated St. Cloud State 3-2.

St. Cloud State Statistical Team Leaders (amount)

Points- Mika Folstad (3)
Goals- Philip Caputo/Mika Folstad (1)
Assists- Mika Folstad/Matt Greenland/Yanis Smeg/Rhys Ward (1)
Shots on goal- Philip Caputo/Andrés García (2)
Shots- Andrés García (4)
Minutes- Ramy Atia/Andrew Holmes (180)
Saves- Ramy Atia (6)

St. Cloud State Team Statistics (GLIAC ranking)

7.5 shots per game (6^th) | 4.00 shots on goal per game (6^th)
4.00 points per game (3^rd) | 1.00 goals per game (4^th) | 2.00 assists per game (1^st)
2.00 goals allowed per game (6^th) | 3.00 saves per game (2^nd)
7.00 fouls per game (1^st)

Series History
Friday's game against Upper Iowa will be the sixth all-time meeting between the teams with Upper Iowa holding a 4-1-0 record against the Huskies. Last year's meeting between the teams was a lopsided loss for the Huskies that saw the Peacocks record 11 shots on goal and capitalize on five on those shots. Vukota Mastilovic scored the lone goal for the Huskies as Upper Iowa defeated St. Cloud State 5-1.

Tuesday's meeting between St. Cloud State and Jamestown will be the first game between the two teams.

Scouting Upper Iowa
The Peacocks come into this matchup with the Huskies holding a 0-1-1 record. Upper Iowa opened their season last week with a 2-2 tie against newly acquainted GLIAC member Roosevelt University. UIU suffered their first loss of the season as they fell to Fort Hayes State University 1-0. Last season, Upper Iowa put together a 7-7-3 record, but a 4-7-2 conference record prohibited them from reaching the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament.
This year, the Peacocks return five of their top six points scorers including their leading scorer Mateo Rodriguez who tallied 18 points on six goals and assists. Daigo Adachi and Thomas Walle each recorded double digit points a season ago with Adachi tallying 12 points off two goals and eight assists and Walle scoring 10 points with four goals and two assists. Through two games this season, Rodriuez and Walle have each been held scoreless. Daniel Pranger is the Peacocks leading scorer so far this season with three points coming off a goal and an assist.

Through two games, Upper Iowa has started a different goalie as Diogo Cardoso and JJ Gonzalez-Hayes each started one game. Last year, Gonzalez-Hayes started eight games for the Peacocks and tallied 34 saves with a .654 save percentage, allowed 18 goals for a 2.21 goals allowed average, and posted a 3-4-2 record. In his lone start against Roosevelt, Gonzalez-Hayes recorded three saves, allowed two goals, and posted a .600 save percentage in the tie. In the offseason, Cardoso transferred from Camden County College where he started 14 games, recorded 82 saves with a .863 save percentage, allowed 13 goals, and posted an 11-2-1 record. In his first start at Upper Iowa, Cardoso allowed one goal, tallied five saves on six shots on goal faced, but was given the loss against Fort Hayes State.

Jason Carlson enters his seventh year with Upper Iowa in 2024. Carlson is in the midst of his second stint with the Peacocks and has amassed a 48-47-10 record in his tenure. Carlson's best season with the Peacocks came in 2015 where he registered a 13-4-1 record and claimed their first conference regular season title. Upper Iowa would reach the NCAA Division II Central Region Finals, but a loss to Fort Hayes State would end their season. Carlson would be awarded the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association and Central Region Coach of the Year at the end of the season.

Scouting Jamestown
Jamestown comes into this matchup with the Huskies posting a 1-3-1 record and our in the midst of a three-game losing streak. During their losing streak, the Jimmies have given up a total of 12 goals. Last season, Jamestown put together a 3-10-4 record.

Through the first five games of the season, the Jimmies offense is being led by a pair of freshmen. Jake Simson and Oscar Salgado are the two leading points scorers for Jamestown with 10 and nine points respectively. Simson has racked up five goals and scored a goal in all but one game. Salgado leads the team in assists with three and has also tallied three goals.

Starting in goal will likely be sophomore Charlie Clark who has started all five games for Jamestown. In his five starts, Clark has allowed 13 goals for a 2.60 goals against average and recorded 21 saves leading to a .618 save percentage. Last season, Clark started 13 games, allowed 19 goals for a 1.63 goals against average, saved 37 shots at a .661 rate, and tallied a 2-5-4 record.
Austin Shafer is currently serving as the Interim Associate Head Coach for Jamestown. Shafer is in his first year with the program after being named to the position in July.

Jamestown will travel to Nebraska to take on Doane on Saturday, September 14 before traveling to St. Cloud to face the Huskies.

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.