ROLLA, Mo. – With its first victory of the 2018 season under its belt, Missouri S&T's men's soccer will play a pair of home games this weekend as it seeks to work its way back into the mix for a playoff spot in the Great Lakes Valley Conference.

The weekend begins for the Miners with a match Friday night against William Jewell at the S&T Soccer Field beginning at 7:30 p.m., then defending GLVC regular season champion Rockhurst pays a visit Sunday for game that will get underway at 2:30 p.m.

After dropping a tough 2-0 decision Friday to Southern Indiana Friday, the Miners bounced back and got their initial win of the year Sunday as they got a pair of second half goals from Austin Parks (Rolla, MO/Rolla) to break a 1-1 tie.  Hunter Short (Rolla, MO/Rolla) got the Miners on the scoreboard in the first half, then with the game tied in the 73^rd minute, Parks scored off his own rebound to put S&T up for good.

Parks scored his second goal of the game – giving him his second multiple-goal game of the season -- and fifth on the year a little under 12 minutes later to give the Miners some insurance.

With his five goals, Parks ranks third in the GLVC in goals and is tied for sixth in points heading into play this weekend.  Unnar Ulfarsson (Gardabaer, Iceland/Fjolnir Reykjavik) has scored twice for S&T with two assists, while Short and Eric Ferenbach (Godfrey, IL/Alton) have also scored goals for the Miners.  Goalkeeper Nick Posey (Edwardsville, IL/Edwardsville) has made 32 saves in goal for S&T.

William Jewell is winless in conference play at 0-4 and is 2-5 overall, a record that includes a non-conference win over an Upper Iowa team that beat S&T earlier this month.  The Cardinals have been blanked in their two games following the victory at Upper Iowa, losing 1-0 to Missouri-St. Louis and 4-0 Sunday to Maryville.

Teddy Gifford leads the Cardinals with three goals and an assist, while Drew Dempsey has scored twice.  Quinn Ruggeri has a 1.18 goals against average and 39 saves in goals for William Jewell.

Rockhurst, who won the GLVC regular season title before losing to the Miners in overtime in the opening round of the conference tournament last season, got off to a slow start with just a win and two ties in its first five games of the season.  However, the Hawks swept two home games last weekend with shutout wins over Truman State and UMSL to improve to 3-2-2 overall and 2-0-2 in the GLVC.

The Hawks have recorded three straight shutouts and four overall this year as goalkeepers Nick Randazzo and Peter  Baker have split time in goal; the duo has a combined goals against average of 1.07 with 12 saves.

Gianluca Bottoni and Umoh Ufot share the team lead with two goals apiece as eight different players have scored goals for the Hawks this season.  Pablo Salvador Lopez and Swann Vincent each have three assists.