The Omaha men's soccer team hosts Fort Wayne Saturday at 4 p.m. at Caniglia Field in the final Summit League match of the season for both squads. The Mavericks enter with a 4-9-1 overall record and 2-3 mark in The Summit League, good for fifth place. UNO still has a chance to finish as high as third in the final league standings but will need a win on Saturday and some help along the way. Live stats and a live video feed (subscription required) will be available at OMavs.com. Play-by-play will not be available for Saturday's match.
The Teams
Christian Garcia had two goals and one assist at Eastern Illinois last Sunday and was named Summit League Offensive Player of the Week. He joins Chava Garcia and
Vance Rookwood as recipients of the award this season. Rookwood and Christian Garcia each have a team-high three goals, while Chava Garcia has a team-best nine points on two goals and five assists. Senior goalie
Matt Grosey has one Summit League Defensive Player of the Week award this season, as does center back
Felipe da Silva. The Mavericks have had no troubles creating shots this season, as they rank first in the league with 15.9 shots per game. However, the Mavs' outburst on Sunday was just the second time they've hit three goals this season.
Fort Wayne enters its Summit League finale with a 1-14-1 overall record and 1-4 mark in league play. The Mastodons are eliminated from contention for the Summit League Tournament. IPFW is led by Oscar Uyamadu, who has a team-high five goals and 10 points. Corey Tom has two goals and three assists for seven points. Jacob Murphy and Jose Rodriguez each have five points. Raphael Kotzock has started all 16 games in goal and has a 3.04 goals against average and .615 save percentage.
Series History
Fort Wayne leads the all-time series, 2-0. IPFW knocked off the Mavericks 1-0 last year on Oct. 13 in Fort Wayne. Both meetings between the teams have been on the Mastodons' home field.
Last Time Out
CHARLESTON, Ill. - The Omaha men's soccer team's attack came alive in a 3-0 shutout win at Eastern Illinois on Sunday. The Mavericks tied the school record with 24 shot attempts and put 13 shots on goal. Christian Garcia tied the school record with two goals and added an assist for a five-point day, which also matched the best single-game output in the three years of the Maverick program. Garcia had 10 shots on the day, a new school record, and he put four shots on goal to tie the school record held by
Logan Mendez. Chava Garcia had a goal and an assist, and
Craig Buettner added two assists to tie the school record.
Matt Grosey made a season-high six saves to record his third shutout of the season and the sixth of his career. Defenders
Sam Langston,
Felipe da Silva,
Nick Miller and Mendez played all 90 minutes to aid in the shutout. Over the past five games, UNO has allowed just three goals in regulation. Omaha finished with a 24-16 shot advantage and 13-6 edge in shots on goal.
Up Next
The Mavs finish out the season next Saturday, Nov. 16, with a 1 p.m. non-conference home game against Incarnate Word, a first-year Division I transitional school.
Christian Garcia Wins Summit League Offensive Weekly Award
UNO freshman Christian Garcia was named Summit League Offensive Player of the Week on Nov. 4. Garcia, an El Paso, Texas native, had a hand in all three goals in a 3-0 win at Eastern Illinois on Nov. 3. The forward had two goals and one assist on the day to lead the Mavericks. His five-point performance matched the school record, and his 10 shots in the match were a new school best. He also had four shots on goal to tie the school mark. Garcia opened the scoring in the 26th minute by taking a through ball from Chava Garcia and beating the goalie from seven yards out on the right side. Garcia then assisted on a goal in the 53rd minute, and he capped the scoring in the 84th minute.
Mavs Honor
Joe Marinkovich's Cancer-Stricken Father, Introduce Scholarship
Before last Saturday's game against Oral Roberts, the Mavericks recognized junior midfielder
Joe Marinkovich's father, John, who is battling cancer that has taken a turn for the worse recently. The Maverick players wore T-shirts during warmups to show their support for the Marinkovich family, and T-shirts were on sale to the public at the game to support John and raise funds for a newly created scholarship in his honor, the John Marinkovich Maverick Soccer Scholarship.
Da Silva Collects Summit League Defensive Player of the Week
Junior center back
Felipe da Silva picked up Summit League Co-Defensive Player of the Week honors on Sept. 30. The award was the first weekly honor for the Rio de Janeiro, Brazil native. Da Silva led the Maverick back line in a 2-1 win over defending Summit League champion Western Illinois and a 1-1 draw with Kansas City for an unbeaten week. Da Silva played all 200 minutes on the week and helped the Mavs limit UMKC to two shots on goal and Western Illinois to four shots on goal. He also had three shots, two on target.
Chava Garcia Named Summit League Offensive Player of the Week
Sophomore forward Chava Garcia was named Summit League Offensive Player of the Week on Sept. 16 for his performance at Drake. The award was the first weekly honor for Garcia, though he was named to the Summit League All-Newcomer Team last season. Garcia had one goal and two assists for a career-high four-points in the 4-3 loss at Drake. Garcia picked up his first assist of the game on a corner kick service to
Craig Buettner in the 14th minute to give the Mavs a 1-0 lead. With the Mavs trailing 2-1 in the second half, Garcia brought them back with a cross to Rookwood for a header goal in the 58th minute to tie the game. The Omaha South product then scored the go-ahead goal in the 73rd minute, rebounding his own shot and finishing it for his first goal of the season. Garcia had three shots on goal in the match.
Rookwood, Grosey Sweep Summit League Weekly Awards
The Summit League recognized junior midfielder
Vance Rookwood and senior goalkeeper
Matt Grosey as the Summit League Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively, on Sept. 9 following the second week of the season. Rookwood's award was the first of his career, while Grosey picked up his second-career Summit League weekly award. In the Mavs' only game of the week, Rookwood scored the game-winning goal with 7:55 remaining to give Omaha a 1-0 win over Columbia. Grosey, the Mavericks' captain, posted his first shutout of the season in the victory, making him the only Summit League goalie to pitch a shutout in week two. Grosey made four saves - two of them on point-blank chances by Columbia in the final 15 minutes of the match to pick up his fourth career shutout.
Mavs Picked Fourth in Summit League Preseason Poll
The Mavericks were picked to finish fourth in the Summit League Preseason Poll voted on by the league's seven head coaches. The Mavericks received 23 points to finish just one point behind IUPUI. League newcomer Denver was selected as the favorite after finishing 11-6-3 last season and bringing six starters and 18 letterwinners back. The Pioneers received 35 points and five first-place votes. Defending Summit League Tournament champion Western Illinois finished second and collected the other two first-place votes for a total of 31 points. The Leathernecks have won three of the last four Summit League postseason titles. Following IUPUI and Omaha in the preseason poll were Fort Wayne (15), Eastern Illinois (12) and Oral Roberts (7). The Mavs finished 5-10-1 overall last season and 3-3-1 in The Summit League to finish in a tie for fourth with Fort Wayne in the standings. Omaha has 10 players back who started at least 50 percent of the games last season. However, the Mavs have a talented group of newcomers that will bolster the lineup in 2013.
