Sept. 20, 2005
SDSU CONTINUES HOME STAND VS. ALABAMA A&M AND DUQUESNE
*The San Diego State men's soccer team (4-0-1) will continue its current seven-match home stand with a contest against Alabama A&M on Thursday, Sept. 22, at 4:00 p.m. on the SDSU Sports Deck. Three days later, the Aztecs will have their first-ever meeting with Duquesne when the Dukes visit the Sports Deck for a 1:00 p.m. contest on Sunday, Sept. 25.
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
*Alabama A&M enters the week with a mark of 2-4. The Bulldogs 20-man roster includes 14 players from Africa as well as athletes from Bermuda, Jamaica, Tobago and the U.S. The team's top scorers are Botswana native Mooketsi Letsholo (3 goals) and Ugandan Henry Kabeta (2 goals, 1 assist). Alabama A&M has yet to play a home match and will visit UC Santa Barbara on Friday and USD on Saturday after facing the Aztecs.
*Duquesne enters the week with a 4-1 mark and will host Cleveland State on Thursday (Sept. 22) before heading west. The Duke's offensive leaders include Travis McKenzie (2g, 2a) and Noah Salsi (2g, 1a). Goalkeeper Zach Varga has played every minute between the posts and has a 0.59 goals against average.
SERIES HISTORY
*This week's matches will be San Diego State's first meetings ever with both Alabama A&M and Duquesne.
LAST WEEK
*The Aztecs played the second and third games of its current seven-match home stand, notching a pair of victories against Pt. Loma Nazarene (1-0) and Missouri-Kansas City (4-2).
*In the Pt. Loma Nazarene match, senior Raul Bautista scored the game-winning goal at the 60:45 mark. SDSU out-shot the Sea Lions 17-6, and goalie Tally Hall was called upon to make three saves on the afternoon.
*Against Missouri-Kansas City, San Diego State ran out to a 4-0 lead on two goals by Kraig Chiles in the first half and two more by Bautista after the break. UMKC scored on a late penalty kick and added a second in the final minute. The Aztecs' took 21 shots with UMKC attempting seven.
CRACKING THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
*San Diego State has moved into the national top 30 poll compiled by College Soccer News. The Aztecs are ranked 29th this week in the poll that can be viewed at the College Soccer News web site (collegesoccernews.com).
*SDSU received votes in this week's national top 25 by Soccer Times. That poll (available at www.soccertimes.com) is released late Monday afternoon.
*In addition, the regional rankings compiled by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) listed SDSU seventh in the Far West last week. Of the six teams ahead of them, five are ranked in the NSCAA top 25 and the other received votes last week. Those rankings are released on Tuesdays at noon at the NSCAA web site (www.nscaa.com).
SHUTOUT STREAK ENDS
*The penalty kick goal allowed to UMKC on Thursday brought an end to the Aztecs' streak of four consecutive shutouts, third longest in school history. The longest string of blankings was seven during the 1988 season.
*That goal also stopped Tally Hall's goalless minutes run at 454:35. Hall has still not given up a goal from open play in 461:50 this season. He left the UMKC game at the 81:50 mark and was not involved in the visitor's second goal. His goals against average after the first five matches is 0.19.
GOOD START
*SDSU's four wins and a draw to begin the 2005 season is its best start since 1991 when the team began with seven straight wins. In addition to the 1991 campaign, the Aztecs have begun the season unbeaten in their first six games on three other occasions: 1977 (5-0-1), 1978 (6-0) and 1982 (6-0).
FRESHMAN CONTRIBUTIONS
*Four freshman have gotten their names on the score sheet during SDSU's first five matches this season. Both Kevin Werbner and Dennis Sanchez have notched two assists each while Omar Persad and Nick Collins have one apiece. The first three are true freshmen this fall while Collins is a redshirt freshman who was at SDSU in 2004, but did not play.
AZTEC NOTES
*SDSU is averaging 1.72 goals per game after five matches while allowing 0.38 per game. Last season, the Aztecs' scoring average was 0.81 goals a game while opponents scored 1.73 per contest.
*Junior Raul Bautista's four goals already this year matches his most productive season at SDSU when he had four goals during the 2003 campaign.
*Going back to the end of last season, SDSU has won each of its last five home matches.
*This week's contests are the team's final games before it officially begins its first season as Pac-10 member when it hosts Stanford on Friday, Sept. 30.