Cal State Fullerton at St. Mary's
Sunday, Sept. 25 | 3 P.M. PT
Titan Stadium | Fullerton, CA
Live Stats: fullertontitans.com
Live Stream: fullertontitans.com
Series: CSUF leads 6-0
FULLERTON, Calif. -- After eight road/neutral site games to start the season, the Cal State Fullerton men's soccer squad makes its home debut as the Titans take on Pacific in their home-opener on Sunday at 3 p.m. PT.
RUNDOWN vs. PACIFIC
-For the first time this season, the Cal State Fullerton men's soccer team plays at Titan Stadium on Sunday against the University of Pacific at 3 p.m. PT. The Titans are coming off an eight-match road trip stretch to start their 2016 campaign where they won four of their last six and currently sit at 4-4-0.
-Fullerton is coming off a weekend split up north where they defeated San Francisco last Friday in a 1-0 thriller, thanks to Ross McPhie's magnificent chip in the 58th to lead the Titans to victory. However, Sunday wouldn't be the same result as St. Mary's netted two goals in the second half to hand CSUF its fourth loss of the young season.
-This will be the seventh all-time meeting between the Titans and Tigers as Fullerton hasn't surrendered a defeat to Pacific in the first six contests. The Titans have scores at least three goals in each match and took the last meeting in October 2014 at Pacific, 4-0.
-The Tigers enter Sunday's match on fire as they've won four-straight matches and have an overall record of 5-2 to start the year. Pacific faced Grand Canyon in its last match and collected its first overtime win since 2014 by defeating the Lopes in the 98th minute thanks to Tristan Blackmon's first goal of the season. They also collected a victory against a Big West South Division opponent when they defeated Sacramento State, 3-0, at home in early September.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
CSUF's Robert Coronado (MF, Jr.): Robert Coronado has been the steady anchor on both sides of the pitch for the Titans. The junior has started all eight games to begin the season and is tied with teammate Ronaldo Pineda for most shots on the team with 20.
CSUF's Rei Dorwart (F, Fr.): Rei Dorwart made his first career start in last Sunday's match against St. Mary's and has been a key contributor to the Fullerton attack this season by putting four of his six shots on goal to collect a .667 SOG percentage.
Pacific's Julio Cervantes (MF, Sr.): Through seven games, Cervantes leads the Tigers in shots (18), shots on goal (7), points (7) and assists (3). The senior has two goals on the season, including a game-winner against Sacramento State.
Pacific's John Rico-Contreres (F, So.): John Rico-Contreres currently leads the Tigers with three goals on only seven shots. The young forward also has an assist on the season to give him a total of seven points., which ties him for the team lead with Julio Cervantes.
PAUL-ANDRE HOLDING STRONG IN NET
Since making his first career start against No. 16 UCLA, Titans goalkeeper Paul-Andre Guerin continues to get more and more confident in the net each match. Before giving up a goal in the second half to St. Mary's last Sunday, Guerin hadn't let a shot get by him for 374-minutes, which dates all the way back to 10th minute of the Memphis match on Sept. 9th. During that stretch, the true freshman collected nine saves, two clean sheets (vs. UTRGV & USF) and lead the Titans to a three-game winning streak. Overall, Guerin is second in the Big West in both goals against average (0.97), shutouts per game (0.29) and clean sheets (2).
STAYING ONSIDES
Being offsides can hurt the momentum of many teams' attack, but the Titans make sure to not hurt themselves as Fullerton currently has the fewest offsides calls in the Big West conference with 10. The Titans average 1.25 offsides calls per game, keeping their attack in rhythm and constantly going.
TAKE A SHOT FOR ME
With attacking midfielders like Ronaldo Pineda and Robert Coronado, the Titans will usually get a steady diet of shots every 90 minutes, but this season Fullerton has been out-shooting opponents by a wide margin. The Titans currently sit first in the Big West in shots with 106 and shots per game with 13.25. The most impressive stat for Fullerton though is that nationally the Titans are ranked 22nd in shots on goal per game with 7.13. With all these shots on goal, it's no surprise that Fullerton also leads the Big West in goals with 12 so far this season.
COMING OUT HOT
Once the match starts, the Titans don't waste much time in getting their attack ready to go as Fullerton has dominated opponents in shots and corners in the first 45 minutes. When it comes to shots, CSUF leads its opponents 46-19 in the first half, but drawing corners has been an even tougher task for opponents in the first 45 as the Titans have only surrendered nine corner kicks to their 34.
TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS ON THE ROAD
With a tough eight-match road trip to begin the season, the Titans needed to show their strength playing away from home and they showed it in bunches as Fullerton collected three-straight neutral/road wins against Memphis, UTRGV and San Francisco the past two weekends. Against Memphis, the Tigers got on the board first in the 10th minute of the match, but Fullerton went on to score four unanswered goals to win, 4-1. The match against UTRGV was a battle to the finish as overtime was needed, but the Titans proved to be victorious thanks to Alex Heilmann's late-winner in double overtime. Lastly, another close match was played as the Titans and Dons were scoreless through the first 45 minutes. In the 58th, Ross McPhie put up a beautiful chip shot from about 15-yards out that went over the USF keeper's head to give the Titans a 1-0 win over the Dons. Unfortunately, the trip ended with a loss to St. Mary's last Sunday, but luckily Fullerton will have its next three matches at home before hitting the road again to take on Sacramento State in October.
DEFENDING TOGETHER
Since the beginning of the year, coach George Kuntz has preached to the Titans that defending as a team will lead to great success this season and so far they've been doing that. After giving up three goals in the opener to Vermont, the Fullerton defense has improved tremendously as they've only surrendered seven goals in the past seven contests. In those seven matches, the Titans have collected two clean sheets and helped freshman goalkeeper hold a 374-minute scoreless stretch through three and a half matches.
FRIDAYS AT FULLERTON
With the start of the 2016-17 athletic season, CSUF introduces Fridays at Fullerton which is a membership club designed to enhance the Titan game day experience. The membership will feature a beer/wine hospitality area at every Friday home competition for all sports. Those interested in joining the club can visit www.fullertontitans.com/donate/Fridays_at_Fullerton for more information.
LOOK GOOD, PLAY GOOD!
Titan Stadium received some upgrades this summer as the 24-year-old venue got a well-deserved facelift. The upgrade includes nine large-formate vinyl graphic, two large-format banners encased in an aluminum frame, dimensional LED signage on the back side of the press box, paint on the field-level bowl, repair and paint of existing handrails and 1400 feet of wide screen to enclose the venue. "Over the last two years, we have continually made upgrades to Titan Stadium, which we believe will make our venue an attractive destination for future Titans as our men's and women's soccer programs build upon their recent success and conference championships," Fullerton Director of Athletics Jim Donavan said.
TICKETS
The Cal State Fullerton Athletics Ticket Office is located in the Titan House off of Gymnasium Drive on the northeast side of Titan Gym. Ticket purchases can be made in person at the Ticket Office, over the phone, or online. Those interested in the best available tickets should visit FullertonTitans.com at least 24 hours prior to any athletic sporting event.
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL
Make sure to follow @CSUFMensSoccer on Twitter and like the Cal State Fullerton Men's Soccer page on Facebook to keep up with the Titans. Also, make sure to give a follow to @FullertonTitans on Twitter and Snapchat.
