COMING UP: The Evergreen State College (0-7-2 overall, 0-4-1 CCC) hosts the Oregon Tech Owls (6-5-0, 4-2-0) on Friday and the Southern Oregon University Raiders (7-5-0, 4-2-0) on Saturday in Cascade Collegiate Conference matches. Both games will be played at Geoduck Pitch and will begin at approximately 3:15 p.m., or 30 minutes following the conclusion of the men's soccer matches played earlier those days.
FOLLOW THE GEODUCKS: Live stats for Evergreen home soccer matches are available at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/evergreen/.
ABOUT THE GEODUCKS: The Geoducks haven't played since a 2-0 home loss to Northwest University on Sept. 30, and that time off has been beneficial in terms of getting people healthy. One person that Evergreen will be without for the remainder of the season is sophomore midfielder Delaney Rice, who suffered an ankle injury that required surgery during a practice. Rice scored the first of Evergreen's four goals this season on a brilliant solo run against non-conference opponent Pacific, and she had proven to be a significant offensive threat to opponents. As a result, the Geoducks will have to look for goals from other sources, and they hope to get some of those from the run of play. Thus far, junior midfielder Hunter Thomson Terrel is the primary offensive weapon with three goals, all of them coming on dead ball situations – two long free kicks and a penalty kick. She is tied for fifth in the conference with three goals and is alone in fifth with an average of 3.2 shots per game. The team, however, ranks 10th out of 11 teams with just 8.4 shots per match. Defensively, goalkeeper Emily Sorenson has a 1.66 goals against average while averaging 7.25 saves per conference match. She is, in fact, the conference leader in saves per match. In their five conference matches the Geoducks have scored three goals while allowing 11. Sorenson registered 12 saves in Evergreen's 1-0 loss at Eastern Oregon on Sept. 23, numbers that continue to impress given Eastern's 6-0 record and first-place status in the conference.
ABOUT OREGON TECH: The Owls are tied for third place in the conference standings with 12 points from their 4-2-0 record and have scored 10 goals while allowing six in CCC play. Cassidy Grosvener, named the CCC offensive player of the week on Oct. 2, is the team's primary offensive threat with six total goals this season, while goalkeeper Megan Green has compiled a 1.01 goals against average and three shutouts in the team's six conference games. Oregon Tech had won four in a row until losing to visiting Eastern Oregon, 2-0, in their most recent contest.
ABOUT SOUTHERN OREGON: The Raiders are tied with Oregon Tech and Rocky Mountain for third in the CCC table, scoring nine goals and allowing nine in their six games. Goalkeeper Hannah Ceciliani, the defensive player of the week two weeks ago, has three conference shutouts and a 1.46 goals against average, while Kelsey Randall leads the team with three goals in conference matches and four overall. Like Oregon Tech, Southern Oregon has won four of its last five matches, the only defeat coming at home by a 4-0 count to Eastern Oregon.
VENUE AND TIME CHANGE: Evergreen's final two matches of the regular season will be played at a new location and with a different start time. The Geoducks will host Rocky Mountain on Friday, Oct. 27, and College of Idaho on Saturday, Oct. 28, at nearby Capital High School. Kickoff for both matches has been moved up one hour to noon. In recent years, Evergreen has had to move its final home matches off campus when rain makes Geoduck Pitch unplayable. Capital High School offers a nearby location with field turf.
