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Men's Soccer Opens WCC Play at Home Against No. 15 LMU

Photo: Saint Mary's Athletics
Photo: Saint Mary's Athletics
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Santa Clara men's soccer opens West Coast Conference play against LMU on Sunday inside Stevens Stadium.  Kick off is scheduled for 1 p.m.
 
Due to current guidelines in Santa Clara County, spectators will not be permitted inside Stevens Stadium. In addition, only essential personnel is allowed on campus. The general public is allowed only to 'pass through' campus, such as on a walk, but no lingering, gathering, lounging, etc. is permitted.
 
The Broncos (0-1) opened its 2021 spring season last weekend, losing to Saint Mary's 2-0 on a pair of second half goals.  The second half struggles came on the heels of a strong opening 45 minutes for the Broncos who outshot the Gaels 6-0, putting two on the frame and held a 6-2 advantage in the corner kicks.
 
LMU (1-0) is ranked No. 15 nationally and was picked to win the WCC in the preseason coaches poll.  The Lions placed a conference high three players on the all-conferenced team, midfielder Noel Caliskan, defender Gerardo Lopez, and midfielder Bastien Oberli. 
 
The Lions last played on Feb. 12, defeating UCLA 1-0 at home.  Since then, their game against San Diego was canceled due to to COVID-19 related issues within the San Diego program.
 
SERIES HISTORY
Santa Clara leads the series 25-15-9.  
 

GAMEDAY INFORMATION

Live Stream / Video

WCC Network

Live Stats

StatBroadcast

 

NOTES

Live Stream

• All Bronco home matches and West Coast Conference road matches are scheduled to be streamed live on the WCC Network.

 

Broncos Team Information

• Thirteen players return from the 2019 squad that finished with an overall record of 8-7-2 (2-4-1 in the West Coast Conference). 

• Twelve players with playing experience return including 10 who played 15 or more games last season.  

• Broncos welcome 12 newcomers – seven freshmen (Dylan Bartlett, Caden Buckley, Liam Johnson, Tyrone Kirunda, Cole Motooka, Timmy Rast, Jack Stoecker) plus five transfers (Nicholas Cudini, Andreu Cases Mundet, Jack Murphy, Juan O'Neill, Oladayo Thomas).  

• 54% of scoring returns (13 of 24 goals) led by Javier Ruiz Duran and Eduardo Lopez Perez with four goals each.

• Returning goal scorers (2019 stats): Javier Ruiz Duran (4), Eduardo Lopez Perez (4), Julian Bravo (3), Alejandro Barajas (1), Alejandro Perez (1) 

• Returning goalkeeper (2019 stats): Guillem Badenes Mecho (15 GP, 8-5-1, 0.81 GAA, .739 save percentage)

 

Class Breakdown – 25 Player Roster

• Graduate School: 1 (Andreu Cases Mundet)

• Seniors: 6 (Alex Achramowicz, Aran O'Brien, Juan O'Neill, Javier Ruiz Duran, Tennyson Stevens, Oladayo Thomas)

• Juniors: 8 (Alejandro Barajas, Julian Bravo, Sakari Carter, Emil Christensen, Nicholas Cudini, Eduardo Lopez Perez, Jack Murphy, Alejandro Perez)

• Sophomores: 3 (Liam Anderson, Guillem Badenes Mecho, Damani Osei)

• Freshmen: 7 (Dylan Bartlett, Caden Buckley, Liam Johnson, Tyrone Kirunda, Cole Motooka, Timmy Rast, Jack Stoecker)

 

Across the Globe

• The Bronco roster fields a squad composed of player hometowns from seven states and seven countries. 

o States (7): California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Virginia and Washington

o Countries (7): Denmark, England, Italy, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Spain, United States

 

All-West Coast Conference

• Santa Clara returns three All-West Coast Conference players from last season: Javier Ruiz Duran (first-team), Emil Christensen (second-team) and Damani Osei (all-freshman).

• Ruiz Duran and Christensen were named preseason All-WCC this season.

 

United Soccer Coaches All-West Region

• At the conclusion of the 2019 season, Ruiz Duran (third-team) and Christensen (second-team) were named to the United Soccer Coaches All-West Region team.  They are the 23rd and 24th Broncos overall to be named to the United Soccer Coaches (formerly NSCAA) All-West Region team. 

• Ruiz Duran is the first Santa Clara player to repeat on the All-West Region team since current Bronco volunteer assistant coach Jide Ogunbiyi in 2007 and 2008 when he was named first and third team. 

 

Bronco Newcomers

• Ten newcomers saw action in the season opener against Saint Mary's including starts by five of them - Andreu Cases Mundet, Oladayo Thomas, Jack Murphy, Juan O'Neill and Nicholas Cudini. In addition, Cole Motooka, Timmy Rast, Liam Johnson, Caden Buckley and Dylan Bartlett.  

 

Coaching Staff – Bronco Then, Bronco Now

• All four coaches on the Broncos staff played at Santa Clara.

o Head coach Cam Rast (class of 1991) has led his alma mater to seven NCAA tournaments and five West Coast Conference Championships since taking over the Bronco men's soccer program in 2002. A former All-America player on Santa Clara's co-National Championship team of 1989 and U.S. Olympic Team captain in 1992, Rast spent eight seasons as an assistant coach at SCU from 1994-2001 and was inducted to the WCC Hall of Honor in 2018.  Rast is the program's all-time winningest coach with a 174-131-51 career record. 

o Associate head coach Eric Yamamoto (class of 1990) enters his 29th year coaching at Santa Clara.  Wearing the Bronco uniform from 1986-89, Yamamoto was an All-American goalkeeper on Santa Clara's 1989 NCAA co-National Championship team.  He spent most of the 1990's as the goalkeepers coach for Santa Clara's men's and women's programs joining the coaching ranks in 1992.  In 2007 he was named National Assistant Coach of the Year by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA).

o Assistant coach Mykell Bates (class of 2012) in his second year as a full-time assistant after serving as a volunteer coach for one year.  Bates was a two-time captain on the 2010 and 2011 squads and was selected All-West Coast Conference First Team in those seasons.

o Volunteer assistant coach Jide Ogunbiyi (class of 2009) begins his second year in the role.  Ogunbiyi was the No. 18 overall pick in the 2009 MLS SuperDraft by the New York Red Bulls and embarked on a nearly 10 year professional career in Denmark, including in the Danish Superliga.  The 6-foot-4 defender/forward helped the Broncos to back-to-back WCC titles in 2006 and 2007 and three straight NCAA Tournament appearances.

 

Coaches' Sons

Jack Murphy, a transfer from Fordham University, is the son of Santa Clara associate women's soccer head coach Gregg Murphy.

• Incoming freshman Timmy Rast is the son of Santa Clara men's soccer head coach Cam Rast.  Like his father, Timmy is a defender and will also don the No. 14 jersey that Cam wore from 1988 – 91.

 

Getting It Done In The Classroom

• In the fall quarter, the men's soccer team posted the highest term GPA (3.47) amongst all Santa Clara men's teams.

 

Season Openers

• Broncos head coach Cam Rast is 10-9 including 5-4 at home in season openers.

 

Schedule

• Santa Clara is scheduled to play eight matches this spring, all against West Coast Conference opponents but only seven of them count towards the conference record.  The first match against Saint Mary's on Feb. 21 is a nonconference match.  The Broncos play three home and five road matches. 

• All the games are on Sundays with the exception of the Portland match which falls on a Saturday (April 3).

Sun. Feb. 21         at Saint Mary's    L, 2-0                           

Sun. Feb. 28         Loyola Marymount *             

Sun. March 7        at San Francisco *                   

Sun. March 14      at Pacific *                              

Sun. March 21      Saint Mary's *                       

Sun. March 28      Gonzaga *                             

Sat. April 3          at Portland *                            

Sun. April 11        at San Diego *                        

*Conference         Bold team: Home event

 

2021 Recruiting Class

• The Broncos signed three players in the incoming recruiting class for the 2021-22 season: Blake Gillingham, Aaron Sandhu and Dominic Vegaalban

• Gillingham is a 6-foot-2 goalkeeper from nearby Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, California and played his club soccer for De Anza Force SC.  He was ranked as one of the top 150 players in the country by IMG Academy.

• Sandhu is a 6-foot defender out of Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, Washington.  He competed for United Football Academy in the USSDA U15 before playing the last three seasons for Crossfire Premier SC.

• Vegaalban, a forward from Rocklin, California attended Visions in Education.  The 5-foot-10 Vegaalban has been in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy with Sacramento Republic FC, Seattle Sounders FC, Sacramento Republic FC and De Anza Force SC.  He has also been part of the U14 and U16 U.S. Boys' National Teams.

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