By: Sam Boender
#14 Mines (1-0, 1-0 RMAC) at Adams State (0-2, 0-2 RMAC) – Friday, 3 p.m. – Alamosa, Colo. [Live Stats] [Live Video]
#14 Mines (1-0, 1-0 RMAC) vs. Colorado Christian (4-2, 0-1 RMAC) – Sunday, 2:30 p.m. – Stermole Stadium [Live Stats] [Live Video]
THERE AND BACK
The #14-ranked Colorado School of Mines Men's Soccer team opens its road schedule this weekend with a match on Friday at 3 p.m. against Adams State in Alamosa, Colo. Then, Mines will immediately return to Golden and host Colorado Christian on Sunday. After opening the overhauled 2020-21 season with a spicy win over Adams State, the Orediggers will look to roll out three straight wins as they hit the halfway point of their schedule.
FAN POLICY
Adams State will allow fans at ASU Soccer Field for Friday's contest. The cost of admission is $5.00 and only cash is accepted. Masks and social distancing are required and fans are not allowed on the turf. For Sunday's match, the Colorado School of Mines no-spectator policy continues until further notice. That means no fans will be admitted to Stermole Stadium this Friday.
LIVE COVERAGE
Fans and teams alike are certainly disappointed that no spectators are allowed to attend home matches, and a trip to Alamosa, Colo., can be tough to swing. However, everyone can catch all the action live and for free on the RMAC Network at
www.minesathletics.com/tv. The RMAC Network can also be found on Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, and Android TV devices by going to the app store and searching "RMAC". Additionally, live stats are available with links above and on the men's soccer schedule page at
www.minesathletics.com.
SEASON OPENER RECAP
Last Friday, Mines took the pitch in competition for the first time in nearly 500 days. The result was a 1-0 victory over Adams State at Stermole Stadium.
Greyson Adams notched the Orediggers' lone goal which proved to be the game-winner. He slammed home a deflected corner kick from the top of the penalty area through traffic. The 1-0 lead would stand as Mines limited ASU to just one total shot that happened to go on goal. Meanwhile, the Orediggers racked up 18 shots with five on goal.
SCOUTING ADAMS STATE
After dropping their season debut to Mines, the Grizzlies headed down to Pueblo and surrendered a 7-0 decision to the ThunderWolves. Burcin followed up his brilliance against the Orediggers with six more saves against "The Pack", but still allowed seven other shots into the back of the net. In total, CSU Pueblo outshot Adams State by a margin of 25-5 with a 13-1 advantage in shots on goal. The Grizzlies welcome Mines to Alamosa on Friday still winless and still scoreless this season as first-year Head Coach Brett Bentley seeks his first victory at the helm of ASU. Indvidually, true freshman Keegan Nelson out of Arvada, Colo., has accounted for three of his team's six shots on the season.
WHERE IS ALAMOSA?
Last week, fans learned a healthy amount about the North American Brown Bear. This week, we'll take a look at Friday's destination. Alamosa, Colo., is the home of Adams State University which was founded as Adams State Normal School in 1921 which eventually became Adams State College and finally ASU in 2012. The founder of the school was Colorado legislator Billy Adams. It took him 30 years to convince the state to let him open what was then a teacher's college, but we digress. Alamosa is also the county seat of Alamosa County which makes sense considering Alamosa is the biggest "city" in the county at 9,441 as of 2019. Alamosa is also considered the commercial center of the San Luis Valley. Oh, and there's an alligator farm just 20 miles north of town.
SCOUTING COLORADO CHRISTIAN
Colorado Christian has already played six matches this season and will come over to Golden on Sunday with seven matches under its proverbial belt after hosting CSU Pueblo on Friday afternoon. The Cougars tout a winning record overall, but currently sit 0-1 in RMAC play after a 2-1 loss to Fort Lewis on Sunday. Other contests for CCU include a 2-1 overtime loss to South Dakota Mines with wins over Colorado College, Regis, Tabor and Bethany College. Colorado Christian has already played three overtime matches this season. Dmitri Fabro is CCU's scoring leader with three goals and one assist through six matches. Max Collingwood minds the net and touts 22 saves with seven goals against thus far. As a team, the Cougars average 1.67 goals per game and surrender 1.17 to the opposition.
COOL COUGAR FACTS
Colorado Christian uses the nickname Cougars for its athletic teams. Cougars like leftovers, can leap a long distance and have a large home range. Cougars hold the Guinness record for the animal with the highest number of names with over 40 names in English alone. Other fun facts include cougars that live close to the equator are smaller than those living towards the north and south poles. Only females are involved in parenting while no species, besides humans, preys upon mature cougars in the wild. That means top of the food chain. Last but not least, Cougars can run as fast as 35-45 miles per hour. And now you know.
SERIES HISTORY – ADAMS STATE
Thanks to last Friday's win, Mines is now 17-1-0 against Adams State since transitioning to NCAA Division II in 1992. The Orediggers now tout 12 straight victories over the Grizzlies by a combined margin of 36-5. Last week's clean sheet brought Mines' total to seven shutouts in the run and three straight since 2018.
SERIES HISTORY – COLORADO CHRISTIAN
Sunday marks the 53rd meeting between Mines and CCU since 1992. The Orediggers boast a 40-10-2 advantage in the all-time series despite dropping a 2-1, overtime decision when the teams first met in 1992. Mines also touts a 10-match winning streak against Colorado Christian. The Orediggers last loss to the Cougars came on Sept. 27, 2013. Since that time, Mines hasn't just won 10 straight matches, its posted 10 consecutive shutouts versus Colorado Christian. The overall scoring margin since 2013 is 46-0 in favor of the Orediggers.
IN THE RANKINGS
Mines opened the season ranked ninth in the nation in the United Soccoer Coaches' DII Top-25. After Friday's win, the Orediggers dropped to 14th in the nation. Despite the fall, Mines remain the only RMAC program appearing the national top-25. Perennial powerhouse Charleston maintains its spot at #1 with South Central Region foe St. Mary's checking in at #16.
BITS AND PIECES
After 471 days without competitive soccer, last Friday's match brought a plethora of debuts for Mines. True freshman Vaugh Simpson not only made his collegiate debut, he also got the start on the back line and tallied one shot. Transfer striker
Azad Iliozer also made his Oredigger debut with a start that resulted in four shots with one on goal. Coming off the bench for the first time in a Mines uniform were
Chris Seery and
Zane Sokolowski.
Greyson Adams' goal was unassisted and marked the fourth tally of his career. The Orediggers' 18 shots against Adams State were the most in a match since racking up 27 against Dixie State on Nov. 10, 2019 in the RMAC Tournament Semifinal match.
HOW IT'S WORKING
After canceling the normal fall season, the RMAC is conducting a conference schedule this spring which will culminate with the RMAC Tournament starting April 23. Mines' men tout a six-game, regular-season schedule. Teams must complete at least 50 percent of their original RMAC slate to qualify for the tournament. Mines' remaining games include Fort Lewis on April 1 in Durango, Colo., CSU Pueblo on April 3 in Pueblo, and Fort Lewis at home on April 9.
LOOKING AHEAD
As reference above, Mines continues its spring campaign April 1-3 with a road trip including Durango and Pueblo. Fan policies for both games will be linked in the preview for those games. Live stats and video will also be linked at www.minesathletics.com.
Fans can keep up with Mines men's soccer on Twitter at @MinesMSOC. They can also keep up with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all year long on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the handle @MinesAthletics.