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SANTA CLARA, Calif.  – A bye week has allowed Santa Clara University's men's soccer team extra preparation heading into Friday night's match with LMU. The game is part of an SCU soccer doubleheader as the 10th-ranked Bronco women will host No. 3 Pepperdine on their 'Senior Night' prior to the men's kick-off at approximately 7:30 p.m.  

Week #9 - Oct. 24, 2011-Oct. 30
LMU (5-9; 3-3 WCC) @ SANTA CLARA (6-5-3; 2-4 WCC)
Friday, Oct. 28, 2011 • 7:30 p.m.*
Game #15 • Home Game #10 • Santa Clara, Calif.
Watch Live
SAN DIEGO (7-5-1; 4-1-1 WCC)^ @ SANTA CLARA
Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011 • 2 p.m.
Game #16 • Home Game #11 • Santa Clara, Calif.
Watch Live

* SCU soccer doubleheader (No. 10 SCU women hosting No. 3 Pepperdine at 5 p.m.)
^ San Diego will play @ USF Friday night at 7 p.m.

WEEKLY NOTES
* Cameron Rast is in his tenth season as Santa Clara head coach (109-58-37)
* Each WCC team has had two weeks of practice due to the league's bye week
* SCU is 5-2-2 at home this season and 57-16-21 all-time at Buck Shaw under Rast 
* Santa Clara has been ranked as high as No. 18 nationally this season
* The Broncos are trying to snap a four-game losing streak
* SCU is coming off close losses to LMU and USD two weeks ago on the road
* The Broncos are 28-6-4 all-time against LMU and USD at Buck Shaw Stadium
* SCU junior forward Erik Hurtado leads the WCC in goals (5), points (14) and shots (57)
* Santa Clara entered league play with the WCC's best offense, but has scored just three goals in its last six games
* While SCU's offense has struggled lately, LMU's offense has come alive, generating a WCC-best 26 points through the first half of league play
* San Diego has emerged as the team to beat in the WCC, owning a 4-1-1 league record at the midway point in the conference schedule
* Following the weekend, Santa Clara will host just one more home game (Nov. 6 vs. SMC)

TICKETS
Tickets are available for purchase online at SantaClaraBroncos.com/buytickets or by calling the ticket office directly at 408-554-4660. Single-game tickets start at $5 for youth/seniors and $8 for adults.

LIVE VIDEO BROADCAST - FREE!
Fans can watch every Santa Clara soccer HOME game online for FREE via SantaClaraBroncos.com with Live Scoring complementing the broadcast on the Broncos' all-access portal courtesy of StretchInternet. Charles Wollin will be providing play-by-play audio for Sunday's match with San Diego.

GAME PROMOTIONS
Santa Clara senior Eric Masch is asking SCU soccer fans to help fight poverty in the Silicon Valley. A clothing drive sponsored by Sacred Heart Community Service is accepting coats, pants, shirts, shorts and cash donations at a table near the main stadium entrance.

HEAD COACH CAMERON RAST (10th-year)
Since taking over the Bronco men's soccer program nine years ago, SCU alumnus and Hall of Famer 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 109-58-37 career record and is 57-16-21 all-time at SCU's Buck Shaw Stadium.

SANTA CLARA
After a great start and a national ranking of No. 18 just a couple weeks ago, the Broncos (6-5-3; 2-4 WCC) now have their work cut out for them down the stretch. After opening WCC play 2-0 and improving to 6-1-3 overall, SCU has lost four straight – all within league play – and are hoping to get back on track this weekend. The bye week has allowed a number of key players to rehab injuries, including backline starters Mykell Bates (All-WCC) and Gabriel Romero, along with senior midfielder David Castellanos, who are all hoping to play this weekend. For a realistic chance at repeating as WCC Champs, the Broncos will have to win both games this week, and most likely remain unbeaten throughout the remainder of league play.

LMU
The Lions (5-9; 3-3 WCC) have rebounded from a seven-match losing skid to win three straight and move into title contention. Led by 14th-year head coach Paul Krumpe, LMU enjoyed one of its best-ever seasons in 2010, going 8-3-1 in conference play and claiming a share of the league-title with SCU. Like the Broncos, the Lions will have to finish strong if they hope to win the league this season. After a slow start offensively, LMU has scored a WCC-best 26 points (8 goals/10 assists) over the last six games.

ALL-TIME SERIES WITH LMU
The all-time record between the Broncos and Lions stands at 23-9-5 in favor of SCU. The series has been contentious, as four of the last seven have ended in a draw, including last season's 1-1 tie at Buck Shaw Stadium. Just two weeks ago in Los Angeles, LMU claimed a 1-0 victory in overtime after red cards were issued to both sides in the first half. Not much of LMU's success in the series has come at Buck Shaw, where SCU holds a 12-2-3 all-time edge.

SAN DIEGO
Led by long-time head coach Seamus McFadden, who has guided the Toreros to six WCC championships and 12 NCAA tournament appearances, USD has positioned itself as the team to beat midway through the WCC season. The Toreros (7-5-1; 4-1-1 WCC) - picked to finish second – enter the weekend having won three straight, all via the shutout. USD has blanked five of six WCC opponents this season, with their only loss coming at Gonzaga 3-2 on Oct. 9. Junior Patrick Wallen – last season's WCC Player of the Year – is one to watch, as he continues to rank among the WCC's top offensive players.

ALL-TIME SERIES WITH USD
Santa Clara holds an all-time record of 26-11-4, which includes the recent 2-0 loss to USD at Torero Stadium. Looking back at the series, USD failed to secure a victory against SCU between 1987-1994, landing them eight straight losses  - three of which were in OT. More recently, USD has only beat SCU twice in the last 14 meetings. The Broncos are 16-4-1 all-time against the Toreros at home.

QUOTABLE
"The past two weeks we have been training hard, working on the flaws that we've had," said All-WCC forward Erik Hurtado on Tuesday. "We should have everyone back. When everyone is back and healthy we have really good chemistry from the backline, to the midfield, to the frontline."

WCC STANDINGS (pts)
San Diego 4-1-1 (13)/7-5-1
Saint Mary's 3-1-2 (11)/4-4-5
San Francisco 3-2-1 (10)/5-6-2
LMU 3-3 (9)/5-9-0
Gonzaga 2-3-1 (7)/4-7-2
Santa Clara 2-4 (6)/6-5-3
Portland 1-4-1 (4)/6-6-2

UPCOMING MATCHES
Wednesday, October 26
Gonzaga @ Portland, 7 p.m.
Friday, October 28
San Diego @ San Francisco, 7 p.m.
Loyola Marymount @ Santa Clara, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, October 30
Loyola Marymount @ San Francisco, 12 p.m.
Saint Mary's @ Gonzaga, 1 p.m.
San Diego @ Santa Clara 2 p.m.

HURTADO DRAWS BIG PRAISE FROM WCC
Erik Hurtado was named the West Coast Conference 'Player of the Month' for September. The junior forward was terrific during the month, earning back-to-back WCC 'Player of the Week' honors on Sept. 12 and 19. From Aug. 27 through Sept. 30, Hurtado totaled 40 shots, 12 points, four goals and four assists, which were all league-bests. Hurtado netted goals in four of five matches from Sept. 2 through 16, scoring against No. 6 UCLA, No. 14 Cal and tallied a career-high eight-shots in a 2-0 win over Cleveland State.

"What's unique about Erik is that he's just so explosive," Santa Clara head coach Cameron Rast has said about Hurtado. "His ability to accelerate and the power in his game make (opponents) focus so much time and energy on him, defending him, worrying about him, because he can do things that most other collegiate players cannot."

BRANDON ZIMMERMAN EARNS NATIONAL HONORS
Brandon Zimmerman, a senior midfielder from Pasco, Wash. was named to TopDrawerSoccer.com's National Team of the Week (Oct. 2). Zimmerman bended-in the decisive goal in Santa Clara's pivotal 1-0 victory over Portland in both team's WCC opener on Sept. 30. Zimmerman, an All-WCC honoree in each of his three seasons at SCU, anchors the Bronco midfield. The Portland victory was followed by a 2-0 shutout win over Gonzaga on Oct. 1.

PLAYING UP IN NON-CONFERENCE
Making the Broncos 4-1-3 non-conference record in 2011 that much more impressive, is considering who they played. The Broncos faced 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. New Mexico enters the week 9-0-2.

HURTADO/KLASILA NAMED WCC PLAYER'S OF THE WEEK
Through the first five weeks of play in 2011, the Broncos garnered three West Coast Conference 'Player of the Week' awards. On September 19, SCU junior attacker Erik Hurtado earned the honor of the second-straight time (Sept. 12 & Sept. 19). Hurtado, who continues to lead the league in most every offensive category, has emerged as an early candidate for the league's Player of the Year. His second award came after scoring and assisting in SCU's 4-2 road win at then-No. 14 Cal. Klasila drew recognition as the WCC Player of the Week on Aug. 29 after he shutout Stanford in the season-opener for both teams at Buck Shaw Stadium.

BRONCOS AND THE MLS
Not only does the San Jose Earthquakes of the MLS rent out Santa Clara's Buck Shaw Stadium to call home, the Broncos have had a storied history of future professionals wearing the SCU uniform. SCU was ranked among the top NCAA programs producing MLS talent, according to MLSsoccer.com. Santa Clara is tied for second all-time among schools on the West Coast, producing 17 players who have been drafted by MLS clubs, including Mehdi Ballouchy, drafted second overall in 2006.

MYKELL BATES NO. 8 PRO PROSPECT AMONG COLLEGE SENIORS
Santa Clara senior co-captain Mykell Bates was listed as the nation's No. 8 best pro prospect among college seniors according to TopDrawerSoccer.com. The online publication is showcasing Joe Mauceri's observations on 'Joe's Big Board', a listing of the top 100 prospects for professional soccer in the college senior class.

ERIC MASCH TABBED FOR LOWE'S SENIOR CLASS AWARD
Santa Clara University final-year student-athlete Eric Masch has been selected as a candidate 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.

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 57-16-21 at home since he took over as head coach in 2002. The team is 216-82-40 all-time when playing at home, dating back to the program's first year of soccer in 1967.

THE WCC'S BEST TEAM (2010 CHAMPIONS)
The Broncos won the 2010 WCC Championship by posting a 7-1-4 conference record. No other WCC program has won more games (127) 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 33-17-16 against league opponents.

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.

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

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

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
216-82-40 at Buck Shaw Stadium
110-46-25 vs. WCC all-time
33-17-16 vs. WCC in last three seasons