University of St. Thomas Athletics
Western Illinois
Game Notes -- Men's Soccer home Saturday to face Western
10/21/2022 4:08:00 PM | Men's Soccer
St. Paul, Minn. - Tommie Men's Soccer (2-9-2 overall, 1-2-1 Summit) has a Saturday Oct. 22 home game against Western Illinois (1-6-5, 1-1-2). Game time is 4 p.m.
With a win, the Toms can even their conference record at .500 with three games to go, and even their home record at 2-2-2.
Western scored a 2-1 victory over the Toms in 2021 at home and closed that campaign with a 2-4 Summit record.
The Purple became the first St. Thomas Division I team to tie or beat a top-10 ranked opponent as it played powerful Denver to a 0-0 tie over 90 minutes on Oct. 8 at South Field. The last time No. 10-ranked Denver was shutout after getting 12 or more shots on goal was in 2004. This year's outcome avenged a 3-1 Tommie loss to Denver on the road in 2021.
St. Thomas is 5-9-2 in its last 16 games since the end of last season, including a 3-2-2 home record. They lost 1-0 at Omaha and 5-0 at Oral Roberts in the last week. ORU scored all five goals in the final 45:00 after the game was knotted 0-0 at halftime.
Follow
This week's home Live Video can be accessed HERE:
This week's Live Stats can be accessed HERE:
Opponent Watch
Western is coming off a 3-2 win over Lindenwood and a 1-1 tie with Detroit, both at home. They are 0-1-3 on the road thus far. WIU's 29-man roster includes four grad students, four seniors and six juniors.
The 200 Club
Jon Lowery coaches his 200th game with St. Thomas soccer at home on Saturday Oct. 22. He has won two-thirds of his contests (120-57-22) over his D-III and D-I eras. Lowery played college soccer in Columbus, Ohio, for the Ohio State Buckeyes in the late 1990s. He was twice a first-team All-Big Ten honoree as a goalkeeper.
Over the last decade, Lowery guided St. Thomas' improvement from nine wins in 2014 to 12 wins in 2015, a school-record 20 wins in 2016, a school-record 22 victories in 2017, and added 16 wins in 2018 and 12 in 2019, the last complete D-III season prior to Covid.
Schedule Talk
The 2022 schedule includes 11 rematch games from last season: six involving Summit League opponents as well as California Baptist, Incarnate Word, Gonzaga, UW-Green Bay and Western Michigan. First-time Tommie Men's Soccer opponents in 2022 are UC Riverside, Dayton, Stonehill, Lindenwood, Southern Indiana and Chicago State.
Did You Know?
St. Thomas is 5-9-2 in its last 16 games since the end of last season, including a 3-2-2 home record.
In their first 14 D-I games last season, the Purple scored just seven goals. In their last 16 games since then, they have scored 14.
St. Thomas has allowed 28 goals in eight road or neutral games but only given up five goals in five home games.
Sophomore Faris Colic and freshman Carver Tierney scored goals in back-to-back games vs. Eastern Illinois and Gonzaga on Sept. 24 and 27.
Awards Talk
Junior goalkeeper Tucker Mann made 12 saves against Denver on Oct. 8 and was named to College Soccer News' 13-player National Team of the Week; to Top Drawer Soccer's 11-player National Team of the Week; and also was named the Summit League Men's Soccer Defense Peak Performer of the Week.
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Click HERE to access complete Tommie Men's Soccer weekly notes
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