Next Up For Bronco Men's Soccer
The Santa Clara men's soccer team received the No. 10 seed and earned a bye in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and will play its first game of the tournament on Wednesday, Nov. 15 at 7:00 p.m. PT. The team will host the winner of the Washington/Creighton first round game at Buck Shaw Stadium. Last season, the Broncos did not earn a bye and were forced to travel to Cal in the second round.

Last Week For Bronco Men's Soccer
The Broncos split their two games over the weekend to conclude the regular season. On Friday night, Peter Lowry, Sean Danzeiser and Keith DeVey all scored goals as the Broncos crusied to a 3-0 victory over the Portland Pilots. The win stretched the team's unbeaten streak to nine games. On Senior Day on Sunday, the Broncos lost a tough 2-1 game in overtime to Gonzaga, which got a goal 20 seconds into overtime from George Josten to win the game. Amaechi Igwe continued his recent good form with a goal to give him five for the season. The Broncos finished the regular season 12-4-4 and 8-2-2 in WCC play.

Head Coach
Cameron Rast (Santa Clara '92) is in his fifth season at the helm of the Santa Clara men's soccer program and has a 66-26-12 (.692) overall record and a 30-14-4 (.667) mark in West Coast Conference matches. He has led the Broncos to the NCAA Tournament in each of the last four seasons and his 2003 team advanced to the NCAA College Cup, where it lost a double-overtime decision to eventual national champion Indiana. He has now led the team to two WCC titles after clinching the 2006 championship on Sunday. After eight years as an assistant coach and four as a player, Rast has now reached the College Cup in three different capacities while at Santa Clara. He is already in the top-10 on the WCC career list for league wins. Rast is assisted by Eric Yamamoto, Rusty Johnson and Tim Martin.

NCAA Tournament
The Broncos have qualified for the NCAA Tournament 17 times including this season. They have appeared in five College Cups and won the national title in 1989. Overall, SCU has a 21-13-5 record in the tournament and are 10-2-1 at home. Last season, the Broncos defeated Ohio State 1-0 before falling to California on penalty kicks in the second round. This is the team's fourth consecutive appearance.

NCAA Records
Shawn Percell (1996-99) holds the program record for tournament goals with five in his career. Current head coach Cameron Rast (1988-91) is tied with Kyle Smith (1997-99) for second with four goals apiece. Jeff Baicher (1989-90) and Sean-Michael Callahan (1996-99) are tied for first in assists with four, while Percell leads in points (12). Current goalkeeper coach Rusty Johnson holds the record for most saves in tournament play as he made 19 saves in his career from 1998-99. Kevin Sweeny now holds the record for goals against average after posting two shutouts last season, leaving him with a 0.00 GAA.

Opponents
The Broncos await the winner of Washington and Creighton in the second round. SCU has never faced Creighton in the NCAA's and have played them only twice in their history. The teams tied 1-1 in 1994 and 0-0 in 2003. However, Santa Clara has played Washington 15 times, including two NCAA Tournament games. The Broncos hold the all-time series edge 8-6-1 and teams split their NCAA games 1-1-0. Santa Clara beat the Huskies 2-0 in the 1978 NCAA's in the West Regional and lost 2-1 in the first round to Washington in 1996.

Dean Wurzberger
Current Washington head coach Dean Wurzberger has a Santa Clara connection, as he served as the assistant coach to Mitch Murray in 1991. In his only season on the Mission Campus, he helped the team reach the 1991 College Cup Final. Current Bronco head coach Cameron Rast was a member of that 1991 team.

Washington in 2006
Washington started out the season 8-0-0 and moved into the top 10 in the national rankings. However, following that hot start, they dropped four in a row to fall to 8-4-0. Since that losing streak, the team has rebounded posting a 4-2-1 record down the stretch to get into the NCAA's. Offensively, the team is led by Kevin Forrest who has scored 13 goals this season. The Huskies finished 4-5-1 in the Pac-10.

Creighton in 2006
Creighton finished the 2006 regular season at 13-4-3 and won the Missouri Valley Conference tournament to get into the NCAA's. The Bluejays defeated Bradley in the final. Byron Dacy and Michael Kraus led the way for Creighton with 16 and 15 points respectively. The team has won seven out of its past eight games.

Unbeaten Streak Snapped
The Santa Clara Broncos pushed their unbeaten streak to nine games with a 3-0 win over Portland on Friday night. However, the unbeaten run was snapped on Sunday afternoon as the Gonzaga Bulldogs pulled out a 2-1 overtime victory in the season finale. George Josten scored the winning goal in overtime to end the Broncos run. The nine-game unbeaten run is the longest unbeaten streak since 1999 when the Broncos won 11 in a row to start the season.

Unbeaten on the Road
The Broncos swept two road games two weeks ago at San Diego and Loyola Marymount to finish their conference road schedule. SCU posted a 5-0-1 record on the road in conference, its first unbeaten run on the road in conference since 2001 when they went 3-0-0. Since the introduction of the double round robin format in 2004, SCU had not lost fewer than three games on the road in conference play.

WCC Leaders
Cameron Rast's squad has a number of individuals among the WCC's league leaders. Senior Keith DeVey and Amaechi Igwe are tied for eighth in points with 13, while DeVey is tied for sixth in goals with six. Junior Peter Lowry and Igwe are tied for ninth with five goals each. Sophomores Brian Martin and Jide Ogunbiyi are tied for eighth with four assists. Goalkeeper Joseph Buttita now leads the league in shutouts with seven and goals against average (0.79).

Broncos as a Team
As a team, the Broncos also find themselves near the top of the ladder in a number of statistical categories. The Broncos finished third in goals (32), first in shutouts (8), while placing first in corner kicks with 145. SCU's corner kick total is 49 higher than the next closest team. The team has allowed only 18 goals on the year, the second lowest total among conference teams. Their 0.86 goals against average is tops in the conference. The Broncos also have the second highest home attendance in the league with an average of 1,178 fans through seven home dates.

DeVey Eyes Top Scorers
Keith DeVey netted his sixth goal of 2006 against Portland on Friday and the 20th of his career. The Kula, Hawaii resident is now tied for eighth all-time in Bronco history for goals. He is tied with Steve Robertson. With one more goal, he would jump into a tie for seventh in school history.

Rast Moves Into Third
Cameron Rast has now passed former Bronco coach Steve Sampson and moved into third place all-time in wins at SCU. He now has 66 wins. Steve Sampson earned 64 wins from 1986-90 on the Mission Campus. The all-time leader is Mitch Murray (1991-2001), who has 143 victories followed by Dave Chaplik with 92. Rast is the second-fastest coach in school history to reach the 50-win plateau, just behind Murray.

Buttitta Player of the Month
Sophomore goalkeeper Joseph Buttitta continues to impress in his first year as the starting goalkeeper for SCU. He finished the regular season with a 0.79 goals against average and seven shutouts. He was named the WCC Player of the Month for October for his stellar play.

Igwe Continues Strong Play
Freshman Amaechi Igwe continued his excellent play of late with his fifth goal of the year agaisnt Gonzaga on Sunday. He also notched an assist on Friday against Portland and set up Keith DeVey for another goal. On the season he now has five goals and three assists for 13 points, putting him into a tie for the team lead.

Tight Games
The Broncos have had 14 of their 20 games decided by one goal or end in ties in 2006.

Lowry Up Top, DeVey In Middle
Junior captain Peter Lowry has moved from his role of central midfield into the forward line for the past month, while Keith DeVey has slid into the role of attacking midfielder. The results have been positive as SCU has yet to lose with that formation.

Lineup Consistency
Despite a number of injuries and a tough schedule, Santa Clara has had great consistency in its starting lineup. Through 20 games in 2006, seven players have started every game; Joseph Buttita, Matt Marquess, Jamil Roberts, Peter Lowry, Erik Ustruck, Brian Martin and Keith DeVey. Amaechi Igwe has started 17 out of 20 games this year, while Stephen McCarthy started 19 out of 20.

Balanced Attack
The Broncos attack has been very balanced in 2006 as 12 different players have scored goals and 14 different players have notched at least one point.

Iron Man
Broncos defender Matt Marquess has proven to be a rock on the back-line for SCU the past two seasons. After starting both games last weekend, Marquess has now played in 42 consecutive games for SCU. This season, he has started all 20 games and played 1,847 of a possible 1,883:49 minutes. Jamil Roberts, who has also started every match, leads the team in minutes with 1,857 minutes played. The pair have started every game together in central defense.

Ustruck And DeVey - Last Ties to College Cup
In 2003, Cameron Rast led the Broncos to the College Cup in just his second season as head coach. Two members of that team remain as SCU attempts to make a return trip to the Final Four. Erik Ustruck was a freshman on that 2003 team, while Keith DeVey was a redshirt freshman. That team lost to Indiana in double overtime in the semifinals.

NCAA Goals
Three current Broncos have scored goals in the NCAA Tournament in their careers. Erik Ustruck scored a goal as a freshman in 2003 against Michigan in the Regional Final to help SCU advance to the College Cup. Keith DeVey scored a first half goal against Cal in 2004 in a first round overtime loss. Also, Peter Lowry scored on a free kick against Ohio State in the first round last year at Buck Shaw on Nov. 15 to give SCU a 1-0 win.

NCAA Experience
Santa Clara has nine players with NCAA Tournament experience led by Erik Ustrcuk with eight NCAA games under his belt and Keith DeVey with six. Overall, the team has 31 games of NCAA experience. Brian Curry (3), Matt Hatzke (3), Peter Lowry (3), Matt Marquess (2), Jide Ogunbiyi (2), Jamil Roberts (3) and Scott Sweeney (1) have all played in the tournament.

Home Sweet Home
Buck Shaw Stadium has provided an excellent home-field advantage for the Broncos over the years. They have posted a 193-72-25 record good for an incredible .709 winning percentage. The team has lost only six home games in Rast's tenure at SCU.