ROLLA, Mo. – With time starting to wind down on the 2014 season, Missouri S&T's will host its final full weekend of home contests this weekend when it faces Illinois Springfield Friday and Southern Indiana Sunday.
S&T will host UIS at 7:30 p.m. Friday, while taking on Southern Indiana Sunday in a 2:30 p.m. contest. Both games are scheduled to be played at the S&T Soccer Field.
The Miners are looking to gain some ground in the Great Lakes Valley Conference playoff race this week as well, as they sit in tenth place in the league standings and one-half game out of eighth, which would net them one of the spots in the GLVC Tournament.
S&T has already won games over the two teams immediately ahead of them in the standings -- Truman State and Wisconsin-Parkside -- and would help its chances even more if it can post a win Sunday over Southern Indiana, who is just one game in front of the Miners heading into play on Friday.
Illinois Springfield comes into Friday's match with the Miners at 4-8 overall and 2-8 in GLVC play; the Prairie Stars lost their most recent contest 4-1 to William Jewell after stunning Rockhurst 2-1 last Friday. UIS lost its first seven GLVC contests before recording back-to-back wins over Saint Joseph's and Rockhurst prior to the loss to the Cardinals on Sunday.
Only seven players have scored for the Prairie Stars this season, with Dylan Stockman responsible for three of the team's 10 goals and Jack Coombes scoring twice. Kyle Hamilton and Tommy Geile have split the duties in goal and their combined goals against average is 1.72.
The Miners saw a string 281 consecutive minutes without allowing a goal come to an end late in Sunday's 1-0 loss at Bellarmine, which dropped S&T to 4-6-2 overall and 3-5-2 in the GLVC.
James Holloway (Cape Girardeau, Mo./Notre Dame Regional), who recorded his fourth shutout of the season two days earlier at McKendree, has a 1.37 goals against average with 51 saves.
Eduardo Abichabki (Sao Jose do Rio Pardo, Brazil/Colegio Unigrau) scored the game-winning goal with 74 seconds to play in regulation time at McKendree and has two goals along with
Maxi Fuchs (Munich, Germany) and
Mitch Morris (O'Fallon, Mo./Fort Zumwalt West) to lead the Miners. Abichabki also has a team-high six points with two assists to go along with the goals, while
Martin Klevjer (Trondheim, Norway) leads S&T with three assists.
Sunday's opponent, Southern Indiana, is 5-5-2 overall and 4-4-2 in GLVC play after playing to a 1-1 tie with Rockhurst. The Screaming Eagles have lost just once in their last five outings, but are averaging just barely over a goal per game on the year and have been shut out six times.
Josh Weinzapfel leads USI with three goals and three assists for nine points, while goalkeeper Auston Bruder has a 1.02 goals against average with four shutouts and 41 saves in 1,060 minutes of action.
The Miners posted wins over both teams a year ago on the road, downing the Screaming Eagles 1-0 before pulling out a 3-2 double overtime win at Illinois Springfield after tying the contest with less than a minute to play in regulation time.
Missouri S&T has one home game to play after Sunday's game with USI, an Oct. 26 match against Rockhurst.
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