Men's Soccer Plays Season Finale At Santa Clara
11/12/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Nov. 12, 2010
Complete Release in PDF Format 
Sunday, November 14 - at Santa Clara University, Noon.
END OF REGULAR SEASON
ALL TIMES PACIFIC TIME ZONE
BULLDOGS PLAY SEASON FINALE: Gonzaga University's men's soccer team will try to play the role of the spoiler Sunday when the Bulldogs bring the curtain down on the 2010 season with a West Coast Conference match at co-leader Santa Clara University. The Broncos and Loyola Marymount University are tied with 22 points heading into the final weekend of the regular season. The Broncos play the University of Portland Friday, so the Bulldogs have the advantage of being more rested for Sunday's match. LMU faces Saint Mary's College Friday and the University of San Francisco Sunday in a pair of home matches. LMU is 7-2-1 while SCU is 6-0-4 in WCC play. Saint Mary's and Portland both lurk behind the co-leaders with 18 points. The Broncos hold the tiebreaker with LMU by virtue of a win and a tie in head-to-head competition.
TRYING TO END SKID: Gonzaga University will be aiming to end a 6-match losing streak Sunday at Santa Clara. The Bulldogs have dropped 10 of their last 11 matches, the lone victory a 3-1 decision over the University of San Francisco. The 6-match losing streak is the longest since 2003 when the Bulldogs lost eight straight to end the season, then saw the losing streak extended to 10 with a pair of losses to open the 2004 season. The 14 losses are the most since 2004 when the Bulldogs finished 6-14-0, the Bulldogs going 2-10-0 in the West Coast Conference that season in the first year of the current double round-robin scheduling format.
RANKED FOE: Santa Clara University is ranked ninth in this week's NSCAA/HendrickCars.com Far West regional rankings. It marks the ninth Bulldog opponent in the last 12 matches to come into the match with a Far West ranking. One team on the Gonzaga schedule is still ranked in the Top 25. UC Irvine in ninth in both polls.
BULLDOGS DROP HOME FINALES: Gonzaga University dropped a pair disheartening home matches last week in the Bulldogs final home appearances of the season. The University of San Diego scored on a penalty kick with 10 seconds remaining for a 2-1 victory, then Loyola Marymount University came roaring back from a 2-0 deficit with three unanswered goals for a 3-2 victory Sunday on Senior Day at Gonzaga Soccer Field. The loss to the Toreros marked the fourth time this season the Bulldogs have lost a match with three minutes or less to play, and the second time in two weeks Gonzaga was dealt a losing blow inside the 10-second mark.
SENIOR FAREWELL: Five Gonzaga University seniors will play their final match of their careers Sunday when Gonzaga University visits Santa Clara University for a noon match. Collin Harrison (Boulder, Colo.), Nick Love (Kaneohe, Hawai'i), Christian Seon (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada), Stefan Eysteinsson (Neskaupstadur, Iceland) and Philippe Garre (Scottsdale, Ariz.) will be donning the Zag uniform for the final time. They were honored in pre-match ceremonies last Sunday as they played their final home match.
BULLDOGS VS. BRONCOS: Gonzaga University lost a 3-1 match to Santa Clara University in the first meeting of the season the opening weekend of West Coast Conference action. Prior to this year's meeting six of the previous eight contests took overtime to decide and the teams had split those six matches 2-2-2. Gonzaga lost a pair of 1-0 decisions to the Broncos last season, the second an overtime affair that ended at 92:44 when the Broncos took advantage of a Gonzaga turnover in front of the goal at Gonzaga Soccer Field. Gonzaga has lost three straight to Santa Clara after having a two-match winning streak in the series halted last season. Bulldogs had won two straight in the series heading into last season. SCU leads the series 13-8-3.
ZAGS CAN ESCAPE LAST PLACE: It will take a little help, but Gonzaga University can escape last place in the West Coast Conference standings. The Bulldogs are currently 1-10-0 for 3 points while the University of San Francisco is 1-7-2 for 5 points. The Bulldogs need to take care of business with a win over Santa Clara University in the season finale to have any shot at sixth, and USF would have to drop its final two matches for the Zags to leapfrog the Dons.
STAT LEADERS: Colin Flynn heads the goals and points list for Gonzaga University heading into the final match this weekend. The junior from Douglas, Alaska, has 4 goals and 1 assist for 9 points. Stefan Eysteinsson and Philippe Garre are tied for second place with 7 points. Eysteinsson has 3 goals and an assist while Garre has 1 goal and a team-high 5 assists.
CABALLERO MAKES THE SAVE: Gonzaga University redshirt freshman keeper Ryan Caballero, who has started all but the first match of the season, has 89 saves to move into third on the single-season Bulldog list. He needs three saves in the final match Sunday to move into second ahead of Mike McCarthy who had 91 saves in 2002. The single-season record is 104 set by Scott Barnum last season. Caballero, who has a 1.94 GAA, has one shutout this season, 1-0 over the University of Illinois-Chicago at the Seattle University Tournament.
THE THORARINSSON FILE: Einar Thorarinsson is in his 16th season at Gonzaga University. He has taken the Bulldogs to two NCAA Tournaments, the first in 2001 and the last in 2007. Thorarinsson is the winningest coach in Bulldog men's soccer history with a 129-134-25 record. He earned his third WCC Coach of the Year honor in 2005, and won his 100th Gonzaga match in 2006. For Thorarinsson's complete biography visit the web at http://www.gozags.com/sports/m-soccer/mtt/thorarinsson_einar00.html.
ON THE WEB: All Gonzaga University home matches and selected road contests will be available on video through the CBS College Sports Online All-Access subscription service available at http://wwww.gozags. Gametracker will be available free of charge for all home matches and selected road contests through the Gonzaga website.
