ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's men's soccer team will begin a busy closing stretch to the 2016 season with a three-game homestand that begins Friday, as the Miners look to stay at the top end of the Great Lakes Valley Conference standings.
The Miners, who are currently in second place in the GLVC race with a 6-0-3 conference mark – S&T is 7-1-4 overall – will host Bellarmine at 7:30 p.m. and the team immediately behind them in the standings, Southern Indiana, on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Southern Indiana is currently ranked 22
nd in this week's National Soccer Coaches Association of America rankings for NCAA Division II, while the Miners received votes for the first time this year in the current rankings.
In the NSCAA's current regional rankings, USI is third in the Midwest region and the Miners are fourth. The NCAA will release its first regional rankings on Wednesday, Oct. 19, the day S&T wraps up its homestand when it hosts Saint Joseph's in a 2 p.m. contest. The game with the Pumas was rescheduled after being postponed due to weather on the opening weekend of conference play in September.
Beginning with Friday's game, the Miners will play their final six games of the season over a span of 13 days, a stretch that will also include games against two other teams among the top five in the GLVC in No. 1-ranked Rockhurst and Drury in the regular season finale.
Felipe Andrade (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) continues to lead the Miners in scoring with eight goals on the season, but others in the S&T lineup stepped up last weekend as Andrade was held scoreless in the two games.
Unnar Ulfarsson (Gardabaer, Iceland/Fjolnir Reykjavik), who has five goals and a team-high five assists – tied for second in the GLVC – had goals in each of the two wins last week which included a game-winner in the 81
st minute against McKendree.
Ulfarsson also scored the first goal for S&T in Sunday's 2-1 overtime win at Illinois Springfield, a game won by the Miners with just 1:07 remaining on a goal by
Riley Windsor (Delaware, OH/Worthington Christian).
Andrade is tied for the GLVC lead in goals and ranks fifth in overall points with 16, while Ulfarsson is right behind him with 15.
Goalkeeper
Aaron Hohenstein (St. Louis, MO/Lutheran South) owns the GLVC's second-best goals against average of 0.57 on the season and has made a league-high 64 saves in 1,106 minutes of action. His save percentage of 90.1 percent is the top mark in NCAA Division II, while the goals against mark ranks ninth.
Bellarmine comes into Friday's action at 5-7-1 overall and 4-6 in the GLVC as it is scrambling to grab one of the eight playoff spots as the season winds down. After dropping a 2-1 decision to Rockhurst Friday, the Knights rebounded with a 4-0 win Sunday over William Jewell that included three goals in a span of under five minutes late in the second half.
Callum Southern, who scored two of the Knights' four goals Sunday, leads Bellarmine in scoring with four goals and an assist for nine points. The Knights have also received three goals from Luke Mocherman, while goalkeeper Zach Pogue has recorded a 0.97 goals against average in 1,112 minutes of play.
Southern Indiana fell three spots in the national rankings this week following its heartbreaking 2-1 overtime loss to Rockhurst Sunday; the Screaming Eagles are 10-2 overall and 8-2 in the GLVC, right behind the Miners in the league standings.
USI is tied for the GLVC lead in goals with 27 as a team heading into its game Friday at Drury and has one of the league's co-leaders in goals in Eric Ramirez, who has scored eight times on the year. Kyle Richardville is tied for second in the conference with 19 points as he has scored seven times, while Sean Rickey has scored five goals.
Adam Zehme has a 0.90 goals against average with five shutouts and has made 49 saves in 1,096 minutes.
