Oct. 27, 2005

The West Texas A&M University men's soccer team will head back on the road this weekend, traveling to San Antonio, to play two Southwest Soccer Conference matches with the conference championship at stake. On Friday the Buffs take on St. Mary's University at 2 p.m. and Sunday the men have a showdown at new first-place University of Incarnate Word.

The Buffaloes are currently 9-7 on the season with an 8-3 SSC mark with 24 points, which leaves them in second place in the conference standings, as Incarnate Word took over first-place with a 6-0 win over St. Mary's Wednesday night. UIW now has an 8-1-2 SSC mark with 26 points, and Midwestern State University is right behind WTAMU with a 7-1-2 SSC ledger for 23 points.

What may end up hurting the Buffs is that WTAMU and UIW only have three matches remaining, while MSU has four.

WTAMU is coming off an 0-2 weekend in which they were defeated, 2-1 in overtime at Northeastern State University and then on Sunday, fell 3-0 to Missouri Southern State University. The Buffs fought hard against Northeastern but came up short in overtime. Against Missouri Southern WTAMU was forced to play without their starting goalie Shawn Carr and their second leading scorer Raul Rodriguez because of red cards that were assessed at the end of the Northeastern State match following the game-winning penalty kick.

The Buffs are led by senior forward Josh Fender, who leads the SSC with 14 goals, a 0.88 goal per game average, which ranks 18th in NCAA-II. He adds four assists for a total of 32 points, which is a 2.0 points per game total that also leads the SSC and is 19th in the nation.

St. Mary's comes in with a 5-7-0 record and a 3-6-0 conference mark. WTAMU was able to win the first game of this season series in Canyon, 6-1, back on Sept. 9. St. Mary's is coming off a tough weekend in which they dropped both of their matches, falling on Friday to Midwestern State, 2-0, and Sunday to St. Edward's, 1-0. St. Mary's is led by Scott Kilpatrick who has seven goals and one assist on the season. Aron Ruiz has also helped on the offense with three goals and four assists giving him 10 points.

Sunday's match against Incarnate Word could very well determine the conference championship. Incarnate Word is 11-4-2 on the season and 8-1-2 in the SSC. The Cardinals are currently ranked No. 22 in the NSCAA/adidas Top 25 Poll, the lone SSC team to be ranked. WTAMU won the first game of the season series with UIW, 1-0, on Sept. 11 in Canyon. That win snapped the Buffs' five-match losing streak to the Cardinals, as WTAMU's last win over UIW was Aug. 24, 2001. The two teams had met in the SSC Tournament last year, twice during last year's regular-season and once each in 2003 and 2003, with UIW winning all five match-ups.

Incarnate Word is coming off of a 6-0 win over St. Mary's on Wednesday. The win put UIW into first place in the conference just ahead of WTAMU. Incarnate Word is currently on a seven-match unbeaten streak with five straight wins, the tie against Midwestern on Sunday, and then Wednesday's win over St. Mary's. UIW has been led by senior forward Fernando Jorge who has 14 goals on the season and no assists for 28 points. Jorge ranks second in the SSC in goals, and 11th in the NCAA-II in goals per game, as he has only played in 13 matches. Jorge is tied with Fender for 19th in the country with a 2.0 points per game average. Playing well in goal for Incarnate Word has been freshman Gil Ben Nachum who has 64 saves on the season and a .831 save percentage. Nachum has gone 11-3-2 on the season and is only giving up .81 goals per game, which ranks first in the conference and 15th in the country.

In the NCAA-II Midwest Region Rankings, UIW is in a three-way tie for No. 3, along with Midwestern State and Metro State College. Fort Lewis No. 1, followed by Colorado School of Mines at No. 2. The top three teams of each region qualify for the NCAA-II Regional Tournament.

The Buffs will return home to the friendly confines of Kimbrough Memorial Stadium for their final match of the regular season on Saturday, Nov. 5 at 6 p.m. against border-rival Eastern New Mexico University. Saturday's match will be Senior Night at Kimbrough as the Buffs are honoring their two seniors, forward Josh Fender and midfielder Omar Morales.

For ticket information, contact the WTAMU Athletics Ticket Office at 806-651-4424.

-WT-