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Men's Soccer To Host adidas Classic

Sept. 19, 2000

Santa Clara adidas Classic * Hosted by SCU
Thurs., Sept. 21 * SCU vs. Missouri-Kansas City, 7:30
Sat., Sept. 23 * San Francisco vs. UMKC, 6:00
Sat., Sept. 23 * Santa Clara vs. Cal, 8:00


Santa Clara will open its home season this weekend in the Santa Clara adidas Classic Thursday and Saturday at Buck Shaw Stadium (capacity 6,800). The Broncos will play Missouri-Kansas City in a single match Thursday at 7:30 p.m., while San Francisco will play at Cal earlier that day at 2 p.m. UMKC will play USF in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader at 6 p.m., while Santa Clara will face Cal in the nightcap at 8 p.m. Both of Saturday's matches wil be played at Buck Shaw Stadium.

Men's Soccer Marketing & Promotions
Sept.	21	Santa Clara adidas Classic vs. UMKC
		Schedule Poster Giveaway
Sept.	23	Santa Clara adidas Classic vs. Cal Berkeley
		"Back-2-School" Giveaway (first 500 kids)

Men's Soccer Ticket Information Santa Clara Athletic Ticket Office - 408/554-4660 Online Ticket Sales - www.SantaClaraBroncos.com Ticket Prices: $7 Adults, $5 Youth/Senior, $2 Students

Head Coach Mitch Murray
Mitch Murray (San Francisco State '77) is in his 10th season as the head coach at Santa Clara and his 16th season as part of the Bronco program. He is the winningest coach in school history with a 125-43-17 (.722) overall mark while at SCU. Murray has guided the Broncos to seven NCAA Tournament appearances, including two trips to the NCAA finals in 1991 and 1999. He has coached nine players to All-America honors, recorded nine consecutive seasons in the national rankings and earned four West Coast Conference championships. Prior to taking over the head coaching duties in 1991, Murray spent five seasons as an assistant coach on the Broncos staff under former U.S. National Team head coach Steve Sampson.

Santa Clara Among NCAA Statistics Leaders
The stingy Bronco defense, which has allowed just three goals this season, is ninth nationally in goals against average (0.57). Junior Rusty Johnson (O'Fallon, Ill.) is one of three Bay Area keeprs among the top five in the country in goals-against average. In addition, SCU's four-match win streak is the fourth-longest active streak in the country.


NCAA Goals-Against Average Leaders (through Sept. 17)
No	Player
        G	Min	Goals	GA Avg

1. Chris Humphreys, San Jose State 5 405.0 0 0.00

1. Adam Zapala, Stanford 5 347.6 0 0.00 1. Dan Ferrin, Stony Brook 4 340 0 0.00

1. Scott Nixon, Philadelphia U. 3 270 0 0.00

5. Rusty Johnson, Santa Clara 4 360 1 0.25

Late Starters
Thursday's match will equal the latest home-opener for Santa Clara in 26 seasons. The Broncos opened the 1996 home schedule also on Sept. 21 against Cal. In 1974 the Broncos didn't play at home until Sept. 24 against Saint Mary's College under head coach Dave Caplik. Mitch Murray is 8-1 in home openers with the only loss coming at the hands of Cal in 1996.

Latest Home Openers Since 1974
Date		  Opponent	        W/L	Score
Sept.	24, 1974  Saint Mary's    	W	3-0
Sept.	21, 2000  Missouri-Kansas City
Sept.	21, 1996  California      	L	0-1
Sept.	18, 1993  California     	W	3-0
Sept.	18, 1976  Fresno State     	W	3-0

Broncos in the Polls
Santa Clara is currently ranked 19th by Soccer Times. SCU is listed 21st in the NCAA Media Poll. The Broncos opened the season ranked second in the NSCAA / adidas preseason poll. Soccer America magazine ranked SCU 16th in the preseason. The rankings mark the 13th straight season Santa Clara has appeared in the national polls.

Missouri-Kansas City
Missouri-Kansas City is 1-5 on the season, with four of their five losses being decided by just one goal ... The Kangaroos opened the season by dropping narrow 2-1 decisions to Denver and Wisconsin-Green Bay at home, a 4-3 contest on the road at Fullerton and a 1-0 match to Texas Christian ... After a 3-0 loss at UC Irvine, UMKC put a notch in the win column with a 7-3 win at Centenary ... Six different UMKC players scored in the win against the Gents ... The TCU loss was in the second game of the Bellsouth Centenary Invitation in Shreveport, La. ... Familiarity shouldn't be an issue in the match as UMKC has no players from the state of California, while Santa Clara claims no players from the state of Missouri ... 16 of UMKC's players are from Missouri, with another seven from neighboring Kansas ... UMKC is a member of the Mid Continent Conference which boasts nine member institutions in seven different states ... UMKC was the MCC champion in 1999 but lost a 2-1 decision to Washington in an NCAA Tournament play-in game in Seattle.

California
The Cal Bears are 2-3 on the season following a 3-1 win over UC Santa Barbara on Sunday ... Junior Chris Roner scored two of his team-leading three goals in the UCSB win ... Cal opened the season with a 4-0 win over UC Santa Cruz before dropping three-straight to Saint Louis (3-0), Louisville (3-0) and CSU Northridge (1-0) ... Cal's Kevin Grimes is in his first season as head coach of the Bears ... Cal leads the series with Santa Clara by a 20-9-3 margin since the first meeting in 1967 ... Santa Clara has a 5-4 edge over the last nine meetings ... Santa Clara leads by a 4-1 margin since 1989 at Buck Shaw Stadium ... Last season, Cal knocked off No. 1-ranked Santa Clara by a 3-1 margin ... Cal scored two early goals in the game and sealed the win with a late goal in front of 2,018 fans at Berkeley.

Defensive Minded
Santa Clara has recorded three shutouts in its last four matches and has allowed just one goal since dropping its season-opener at Sacramento State by a 2-1 margin in overtime. In that first game, junior All-America candidate Rusty Johnson (O'Fallon, Ill.) was on the sideline with a deep thigh bruise. He has started the last four matches and has a stellar 0.25 goals against average.

Rusty Johnson Game-By-Game
Opponent	  Score	Minutes	GA	Saves	Record
vs. Alabama A&M	  1-0	90:00	0	2	1-0-0
vs. Cal Poly	  2-1	90:00	1	3	2-0-0
vs. Oregon State  1-0	90:00	0	6	3-0-0
at Washington	  2-0	90:00	0	4	4-0-0
Totals       	  6-1	360:00	1	15	4-0-0

Team Captains
Senior midfielders Joe Ascolese and Jeff Stewart were named team captains prior to the season. Ascolese missed last year due to a foot injury and is back for his fifth-year at Santa Clara. Stewart was a big part of the team's postseason run to the NCAA Finals a year ago in the Men's College Cup.

A Quick Look Back
The Broncos enjoyed their second-straight 2-0 week with shutout wins over Pacific-10 opponents Oregon State and Washington at the Nike Northwest Soccer Challenge in Seattle. Santa Clara defeated Oregon State 1-0 in Thursday's opening game, then knocked-off Washington by a 2-0 score on Saturday. Both games were played at Husky Soccer Stadium on the UW campus.

Against the Beavers, Jeff Stewart (Bellevue, Wash.) made the most of the trip back to his home state by scoring the only goal of the game. The junior defender also keyed a Bronco defense that prevented OSU from scoring a goal on any of its 17 shots in the match. Stewart directed a deflection of an Anthony Chimienti (San Jose, Calif.) corner kick into the goal for his first goal of the season.

In the Washington match, the Bronco defense prevented the Huskies from finding the SCU goal despite 16 cornerkicks by UW. Senior Michael Goehring (Fresno, Calif.) recorded his first goal of the season with a powerful 35-yard blast over the keeper's head. Junior Jamil Walker (Pittsford, N.Y.) scored his forth goal of the season to secure the victory.

Going Home
The Nike Northwest Challenge was a homecoming of sorts for several Bronco players. Santa Clara has four players who claim the state of Washington as their home and a fifth who lived in the state briefly as a prep. Joe and Nick Ascolese are from Chattaroy, Washington, while Jeff Stewart and Phil Johnson are from Bellevue. Goalkeeper Rusty Johnson also lived in Chattaroy for a time before moving to Illinois. Rusty Johnson (no relation to Phil) and the Ascolese brothers became friends during their time together in Chattaroy.

Odds N' Ends
Jamil Walker is the team leader in goals (4) and points scored (8). The transfer from Air Force has scored a goal in four of SCU's five games this season and was named the MVP of the diadora Classic, hosted by USF earlier this season ... Santa Clara has not allowed a first-half goal this season. The Broncos have outscored opponents by a 5-0 margin in the first period through the first five games ... The Washington match marked the first of the season in which an SCU opponent attempted more corner kicks than did the Broncos. The Huskies attempted a whopping 16 corner kicks to SCU's two in that match.

Brotherly Love - West Coast Style
The SCU men's soccer team has two sets of brothers on its team: Joe and Nick Ascolese (Chattaroy, Wash.) and Jamil and Rahim Walker (Rochester, N.Y.). However, both sets of brothers didn't necessarily have the initial intention of playing together at SCU. Joe Ascolese, a fifth-year senior, would have completed his eligibility last season had he not suffered a season-ending foot injury during the preseason. His brother, Nick, is an incoming freshman. Sophomore Jamil Walker spent last season at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. His brother, Nick, is an incoming freshman on the squad. In a related (no pun intended) matter, Jeff Stewart's father, Doug, received his MBA at Santa Clara.

Caribbean Connection
Three current Bronco players were born in Jamaica: Jamil and Rahim Walker and Akil Foderingham. In addition, all three players came to SCU from the East Coast. The Walker brothers were born in Jamaica and moved to the U.S. as children. Both parents played club soccer in their youth and encouraged their three sons to play. Foderingham, a freshman midfielder, he was born in Kingston, Jamaica and lived in Trinidad & Tobago prior to moving to the United States. His father is a doctor and moved to the U.S. for his residency and practice. Foderingham's travelling experience came in handy for his over-2,700 mile trek from Roanoke to Santa Clara.

Transfers Abound
The Broncos feature four players on this year's squad that transferred to Santa Clara from other four-year institutions: Tony Cota (Saint Mary's College), Kirk Fonseca (San Diego State), Kevin Mehrens (UC Irvine) and Jamil Walker (Air Force). Cota started 12 matches as a sophomore for Saint Mary's last season. He scored three goals and recorded three assists in his career with the Gaels. Mehrens started the CSU Sacramento contest in the season-opener for the Broncos. Walker scored a goal in each of the first three matches for the Broncos this season and capped-off his first career start against Cal Poly with MVP honors at the diadora Classic.

Quiet Assassin
With all of the talk surrounding the departure of five of the top six scorers from last year's NCAA finalist squad, it is easy to miss the fact that SCU returns its top scorer from a year ago. Adam Chimienti (San Jose, Calif.) started only one match for the Broncos in 1999, but scored a team-high 23 points on nine goals and five assists. Characterized as quiet and understated, the Leland H.S. grad is also described as very efficient on the field.

2000 Men's Soccer Outlook
October 31, 2000 2000 Men's Soccer Outlook