SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The reigning West Coast Conference Champion Santa Clara men's soccer team opens its 2011 campaign Saturday night at home against local rival Stanford. Kick-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Buck Shaw Stadium on SCU's Mission Campus.
Week #1 - August 22-28, 2011
STANFORD @ SANTA CLARA (Bay Area Classic)
Saturday, Aug. 27, 2011 • 7 p.m.
Game #1 • Home Game #1 • Santa Clara, Calif.
Watch | Live Stats
GAME NOTES
* Cameron Rast is in his tenth season as Santa Clara head coach (103-53-34)
* SCU is 52-14-19 all-time at home under Rast
* The game is part of the 'Bay Area Classic, Silicon Valley Super Clasico'
* SCU has lost its last two home openers, Cal 1-2 (2010), #15 UC Irvine 2-3 (2009)
* Stanford has won in each of the past seasons and owns a slim 20-21-7 series edge
* The Broncos return all 11 starters from its WCC Championship team of 2010
* Mykell Bates and Erik Hurtado were named preseason All-WCC honorees
* Santa Clara is ranked as high as No. 30 in one preseason poll
* Santa Clara won the WCC Championship last season, going 10-6-5 overall
* Stanford was 8-10 in 2010 and went 4-6 against the Pac-10
* Stanford has played two exhibitions, losing to St. Mary's 2-1 and tying Sac. State 1-1
LIVE VIDEO BROADCAST - FREE!
Fans can watch every Santa Clara soccer home game online for FREE via SantaClaraBroncos.com. Saturday night's game with Stanford will be streamed live with Charles Wollin providing the play-by-play from Buck Shaw Stadium. Additionally fans can follow the game via Live Scoring on SantaClaraBroncos.com
TICKETS
Tickets are available for purchase online at SantaClaraBroncos.com/buytickets or by calling the ticket office directly at 408-554-4660. Season tickets start at just $25 for youth/seniors and $50 for adults. For the best value, purchase a Family Plan for $100. The Family Plan includes two adult and three youth tickets to each and every home game. Single-game tickets start at $5 for youth/seniors and $8 for adults.
POST-GAME AUTOGRAPHS
The Broncos players will be autographing FREE posters for fans. Look for the team at the North End of the stadium following the match.
HEAD COACH CAMERON RAST (10th-year)
Since taking over the Bronco men's soccer program nine years ago, SCU alumnus Cameron Rast has led his alma mater to six NCAA tournaments and four West Coast Conference Championships. He was a former All-America player on SCU's 1989 co-National Championship team and U.S. Olympic Team captain in 1992. He spent eight seasons as an assistant coach at SCU from 1994-2001. Last year, in 2010, his ninth year as SCU head coach, the Broncos won the WCC title. Rast has reached the 100-win milestone as a head coach and has moved into third place all-time in WCC coaching victories. The announcement of Rast being named the 2010 WCC 'Coach of the Year' marked the fourth time he has earned the honor. The Broncos advanced into the NCAA College Cup Final Four in 2006. He owns a 103-52-34 career record and is 52-14-19 all-time at SCU's Buck Shaw Stadium.
QUOTABLE
"We just got back from the Olympic Training Center, we spent a week down there getting ourselves very focused for the season," said Santa Clara head coach Cameron Rast. "There is not a better training facility that you can find. We are focused on our first match and won't even look past that at this point. It is important to get off to a good start and to play well, play for the match. I think we have done a good job in getting ourselves ready."
SANTA CLARA
The Broncos will play five straight at home to open the season, beginning with Stanford. No. 6 UCLA (Sept. 2) and New Mexico (Sept. 4) will visit next weekend. SCU returns all 11 starters from its 2010 WCC Championship team, which reeled off a 12-match unbeaten streak late in the year and finished 7-1-4 in conference play. The team is loaded with proven talent. SCU returns nine all-league honorees and nine seniors. Previous All-WCC selections include: Erik Hurtado, Mykell Bates, Brandon Zimmerman, Keigo Kameya, Mark Daus, Murphy Campbell, Wesley Culver, Kevin Klasila and Eric Masch.
STANFORD
The Cardinal returns seven starters from its 8-10 team of 2010, but lose its leading goal scorer in Dominique Yahyavi and defenders Bobby Warshaw and Ryan Thomas who were both selected in the MLS draft. Stanford will open the season with three-straight road games, traveling across the country to face Maryland and Georgetown following Saturday's match with Santa Clara. Last season's 4-1 win over Santa Clara in Palo Alto was Stanford's biggest margin of victory in all of 2010. Stanford was 6-4 at home and 2-6 on the road last season.
ALL-TIME VS. STANFORD: Standing at 20-21-7 in favor of Stanford, Santa Clara's all-time record against its local rival has become a tight race for ownership of the series. The Broncos dropped two matches against the Cardinal over the last two seasons, with their last win coming away from home in 2008. Located a mere twenty miles apart, Santa Clara and Stanford's history on the soccer field dates back to 1967.
BATES, HURTADO NAMED 2011 PRESEASON ALL-WCC
Mykell Bates and Erik Hurtado were among ten student-athletes around the league named to the 2011 Preseason All-West Coast Conference Team. Hurtado has emerged as one of the nation's most dangerous scorers. The junior from Beaverton, Ore., was named a 2010 All-WCC First Team player and garnered National Player of the Week honors last November by College Soccer News (CSN). Bates was also named an All-WCC First Team honoree in 2010. The senior and three-year starting defender from Roseville, Calif., led the team in minutes played (1,852) as a sophomore and is serving as team captain for the second straight year.
2011 Preseason All-West Coast Conference Team
Name School Yr, Pos.
Mykell Bates SCU SR D
Roger Downes LMU SR D
Steven Evans POR SO MF
Doug Herrick SMC SR GK
Erik Hurtado SCU JR F
Artur Jozkowicz LMU SR F/MF
Ryan Kawulok POR SR D
James Matern GON RSO MF
Stephen Posa USD SR F
Patrick Wallen USD SR F
SCU RANKED PRESEASON NO. 30
Santa Clara was tabbed as No. 30 nationally in the preseason edition of the TopDrawerSoccer.com Tournament 48 National Ranking. The ranking projects the field for the postseason NCAA Tournament on a weekly basis, including the automatic conference and at-large berths.
Santa Clara University final-year student-athlete Eric Masch has been selected as candidates for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. The award recognizes the attributes of senior student-athletes in four areas: community, classroom, character and competition. From the list of 30 candidates, a national media committee will select ten finalists for the 2011 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award in early October.
DID YOU KNOW?
Santa Clara has won five of the past 10 WCC titles (2001, 2003, 2006, 2007 and 2010).
MYKELL BATES RANKED AMONG NATION'S TOP 40 PLAYERS
Santa Clara senior co-captain Mykell Bates was listed as the nation's 39th-best player according to TopDrawerSoccer.com's top 100 upperclassmen. The ranking includes the highest ranked college soccer players in the nation and will be updated weekly. The ranking includes sophomores, juniors, and seniors.
FINAL WCC STANDINGS (2010)
Place Team WCC Record (Points)/Overall Record
T1. Santa Clara* 7-1-4 (25)/10-6-5
T1. LMU 8-3-1 (25)/12-6-2
3. Portland 6-3-3 (21)/9-4-6
4. San Diego 6-4-2 (20)/9-7-3
5. St. Mary's 6-6-0 (18)/10-8-1
6. San Francisco 2-8-2 (8)/4-12-3
7. Gonzaga 1-11-0 (3)/4-15-0
*Santa Clara claimed tiebreaker and WCC's automatic NCAA Tournament berth
BRONCOS PICKED TO FINISH THIRD IN WCC
Despite returning all 11 of its starters from its 2010 WCC Championship squad, the Broncos were picked to finish third as a team in the league's preseason poll.
2011 West Coast Conference Preseason Poll
Team (First Place Votes) Points
1. Loyola Marymount (6) 36
2. San Diego 27
3. Santa Clara 26
4. Portland 21
5. Saint Mary's (1) 19
6T. Gonzaga 9
6T. San Francisco 9
2011 PRESEASON AT US OLYMPIC TRAINING CENTER
Shortly after initiating its preseason training for the 2011 season, the Broncos traveled to Southern California for a week to practice at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif.
FROM THE CAPTAINS
The Broncos have named Mykell Bates and Murphy Campbell team co-captains. The two seniors lead a group that is trying to repeat as West Coast Conference Champions and make a deep run in the NCAA tournament.
"This year we are going to build off the success we had last season," said Bates, who is one of nine returning All-WCC players on the 2011 roster. "Our ultimate goal is make an appearance in the College Cup in Alabama."
PLAYING UP
The Broncos will face one of their toughest pre-conference tests in recent memory. Both UCLA and California advanced into the NCAA College Cup tournament's final eight last year, while New Mexico, Harvard and Stanford have been perennial NCAA qualifiers.
HOME SUCCESS
Contributing to the Broncos' strong soccer tradition is the team's home field advantage at Buck Shaw Stadium. Under Rast, the Broncos have gone 52-14-19 at home since he took over as head coach in 2002. The team is 211-80-38 all-time when playing at home, dating back to the program's first year of soccer in 1967.
THE WCC'S BEST TEAM
The Broncos won the 2010 WCC Championship by posting a 7-1-4 conference record. No other WCC program has won more games (125) over the past decade or more WCC titles (5) than Santa Clara. Rast has been honored as the league's 'Coach of the Year' four times in his nine seasons and in the past three years, SCU is 31-13-16 against league opponents.
SCU SOCCER TRADITION
1 National Championship
5 College Cup Final Fours
19 NCAA Tournaments
52 Future Professionals
11 WCC Championships
8 Seasons of 15+ wins
4 Teams ranked No. 1 nationally
13 Teams ranked in top 5 nationally
211-80-38 at Buck Shaw Stadium
108-42-25 vs. WCC all-time
31-13-16 vs. WCC in last three seasons
.jpg?max_width=280&max_height=160&crop=true)
.jpg?max_width=280&max_height=160&crop=true)
.jpg?max_width=280&max_height=160&crop=true)
.jpg?max_width=280&max_height=160&crop=true)
.jpg?max_width=280&max_height=160&crop=true)
.jpg?max_width=280&max_height=160&crop=true)
.jpg?max_width=280&max_height=160&crop=true)
.jpg?max_width=280&max_height=160&crop=true)
.jpg?max_width=280&max_height=160&crop=true)
.jpg?max_width=280&max_height=160&crop=true)
.jpg?max_width=280&max_height=160&crop=true)
.jpg?max_width=280&max_height=160&crop=true)
017.jpg?max_width=280&max_height=160&crop=true)
006.jpg?max_width=280&max_height=160&crop=true)
