What: NCAA Tournament First Round
Matchup: #18 FGCU (14-3-2) @ RV USF (10-6-3)
When: Thursday, Nov. 17 | 7 PM | Tampa, Fla.
Links: Tickets |
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Live Stats |
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NCAA Tournament: Printable Bracket |
Interactive Bracket
Coaches: Bob Butehorn (10th Season @ FGCU, 95-62-23; 14th Overall, 129-93-27) | George Kiefer (15th Season @ USF, 162-86-50; Same Overall)
TAMPA – In search of its first NCAA Tournament victory in program history, the #18 FGCU men's soccer team travels up I-75 to battle rival USF – receiving votes in the national polls – in the NCAA Tournament First Round on Thursday, Nov. 17, at 7 p.m.
HOW WE GOT HERE
FGCU has posted a single-season record 14 wins and received an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament by winning the ASUN Championship with a 3-2 decision over Jacksonville. USF, meanwhile, reached the title game of the American Athletic Conference Championship and tied Tulsa, 1-1. The Bulls lost in penalty kicks, 4-2, but still were awarded with one of the 24 at-large spots into the 48-team NCAA Tournament field.
SETTING THE STAGE
This will be FGCU's fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in just six seasons of Division-I postseason eligibility. The Eagles are 0-2-1 in their previous three games, with the one tie coming at USF in the 2012 First Round, 0-0. The game was officially recorded as a tie, but USF advanced to the Second Round with a 5-3 win in penalty kicks in what was then just FGCU's second season as a full-fledged D-I member, and it had made consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.
USF, meanwhile, will be making its 20th NCAA Tournament appearance. Under head coach George Kiefer, the Bulls have made two quarterfinal appearances, and have made the NCAA Tournament 10 times in the past 11 seasons.
FGCU enters the NCAA Tournament with an RPI of 37, while USF sits at 28.
GLANCING AT THE BRACKET
In FGCU's corner of the bracket, the winner of the Eagles and Bulls match will face North Carolina (11-3-3), seeded 9th overall, in the Second Round in Chapel Hill on Sunday, Nov. 20, at 7 p.m. The Tar Heels were one of 16 seeded teams to receive a bye. The other seeded team in that portion of the bracket is Syracuse (11-3-4) at No. 8, and the Orange will await the winner of Dartmouth (8-4-5) and St. Francis Brooklyn (12-4-3) also on Sunday.
The winners of those two Second Round games will face each other in the Third Round on either Nov. 26 or 27. The quarterfinals will be contested Dec. 2 and 3 while the Men's College Cup will be held Dec. 9 and 11 at BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston, Texas.
USF-FGCU FAMILIARITY
Earlier this year, FGCU defeated USF at The Nest, 3-2, as the Eagles erased a 2nd-half deficit and used its nation-leading offense to score three times in a 3-minute-and-47-second span. All-time, USF holds a slim 4-3-2 edge in the series with FGCU, but over the past five meetings, the Eagles are 2-1-2.
FGCU's first victory in the series came in 2010 with a 2-1 triumph when USF was ranked #13 in the nation. That win came at USF in the season opener as the Green and Blue used two 2nd-half goals to snap USF's 30-game home unbeaten streak (26-0-4) and earn their first win over a ranked opponent in the program's history.
FGCU and USF share three common non-conference opponents this year in Michigan (2-2; 0-0), San Francisco (2-1; 2-0) and UCF (3-1; 2-1 2x) (FGCU score vs. those teams listed first; USF listed second). The Bulls also played a pair of ASUN members (L, 2-0 vs. Jacksonville; W, 1-0 vs. North Florida). FGCU defeated Jacksonville twice, 2-1 and 3-2, and lost to UNF, 3-2.
SCOUTING USF
Since losing to FGCU on Oct. 11, USF is unbeaten in its last six games, going 5-0-1 in that timeframe. Spasoje Stefanovic was named the AAC Goalkeeper of the Year after posting a 1.12 goals against average, including an impressive 0.33 mark in league play with a .910 save percentage.
Sophomore Prosper Figbe was named the AAC Defensive Player of the Year, the first underclassman in the history of the conference to win the award. He was part of a USF backline which only allowed three goals in seven AAC games.
FGCU NCAA HISTORY
All three of FGCU's previous NCAA Tournament games have been closely contested as the Eagles will be looking to break through with their first win on Thursday. In 2011, FGCU lost in double overtime at UCF, 1-0. Its other 1-0 NCAA Tournament loss came in 2014 when FGCU traveled to Coastal Carolina and kept what was then the nation's highest-scoring offense off the board until a highlight-reel goal in the 85th minute – a diving header which landed as SportsCenter's No. 4 Play that evening.
NATION-LEADING ATTACK
Fast forward two years, and it's FGCU with the nation's highest-scoring offense which will challenge USF's backline.
FGCU leads the country in nearly every offensive category by a wide margin: goals (58, next closest: 49), points (167, next closest: 152), goals per game (3.05, next closest: 2.45) and points per game (8.79, next closest: 7.60). The goal and point totals are single-season program records, far surpassing the previous marks of 35 and 108, respectively.
Individually, ASUN Player of the Year
Albert Ruiz (Barcelona, Spain/ CE L'Hospitalet/UE Cornella) – who scored three times in two ASUN Championship matches – leads the nation with 20 goals (three more than anyone else), while ASUN First Team member
Arion Sobers-Assue (Miami, Fla./DeMatha Catholic HS) is tied for 16th with 11 goals. Ruiz also paces all of D-I with 45 points – eight more than any other player in the nation – and Sobers-Assue is tied for 7th with 31 points.
The Eagles have scored at least two goals in every match this year with the exception of three – and two of those came in the first three outings of the year. FGCU has not been shut out all year, something that has never happened in the 10-year history of the program. Over the final 16 games of the year, FGCU has gone an emphatic 14-1-1, with the loss coming to RPI No. 40 North Florida and the tie coming against RPI No. 47 Lipscomb.
HISTORICAL SEASON
FGCU has established the program's single-season record for wins, breaking the mark of 13 by the 2010 team. That squad finished 13-3-2 in the final year in which FGCU was ineligible for the postseason as it went through its D-I transition. FGCU's 14 wins are tied for the 5th-most in the nation this season, trailing only Wake Forest (15), Utah Valley (15), Denver (17) and Maryland (18).
ASUN MEN'S SOCCER AWARDS
Ruiz highlighted nine ASUN individual postseason awards for the Eagles this season by being named the ASUN Player of the Year.
Ruiz is the second-consecutive FGCU product to garner ASUN Player of the Year honors as current Columbus Crew SC midfielder
Rodrigo Saravia claimed the award last year, the first such recognition in the program's young, but extremely successful, history.
Ruiz was joined on the ASUN First Team by fellow striker Sobers-Assue, central midfielder
Kamar Marriott (Tampa, Fla./Heritage HS) and defensive stalwart
Nicolas Samayoa (Guatemala City, Guatemala/Colegio Valle Verde) as the Green and Blue placed a league-high four members on the First Team for the third-straight year.
Midfielder
Dylan Sacramento (Winnipeg, Manitoba/York University/Bill Crothers S.S.) and central defender
Eli Roubos (Toronto, Ontario/Oregon State/Northview Heights Secondary) both earned a spot on the ASUN Second Team. The Eagles had three players receive ASUN All-Freshman Team honors in unanimous selection
Miguel Perez (Weston, Fla./Cypress Bay HS), forward
Shak Adams (Antioch, Tenn./Cane Ridge HS) and goalkeeper
Jared Brown (Aurora, Ontario/St. Maximilian Kolbe CHS), continuing an unbelievable run of program-founding head coach
Bob Butehorn and his staff producing at least two all-freshman performers in all 10 years of the program's existence.
The nine all-conference performers – eight of whom are underclassmen – are tied with last year for the most in FGCU program history, and were matched this season by only North Florida. In a further testament to Butehorn and his staff recruiting and developing young talent, no other team in the ASUN has even produced two or more All-Freshman Team members each of the last two seasons, but the Eagles have done it for the last decade.
REGULAR-SEASON RUN
Despite its unprecedented run of six-straight ASUN regular-season championships coming to an end this year, the Eagles accomplished something from 2010-15 that no other program in the history of the ASUN had done. The Eagles joined the league and became a D-I member in 2007, but FGCU was the first program in the history of the ASUN to claim at least a share of five-straight regular-season titles, let alone six in a row.
ASUN DOMINANCE
FGCU owns a dominant 40-5-5 record in all ASUN regular-season games since the start of the 2010 season. Out of a possible 150 points that could have been earned in that time, the Green and Blue have claimed an impressive 125 of them (83.3 percent).
INSIDE THE STREAK
FGCU's 10-game winning streak from Sept. 4-Oct. 14 was two better than the previous program record of eight set in 2010 and 2012. During the run – which was the longest active streak in the nation – the Eagles out-scored their opponents, 40-15, and scored at least three goals in each of the last eight victories.
OFFENSIVE STALWART
Both Ruiz's goal (20) and point totals (45) are by far single-season program records as the previous highs were seven and 17, respectively. Additionally, Ruiz has continued to build upon his career program record for points with 63 (previous: 43, Cristian Raudales) and goals with 28 (previous: 19, Raudales). More single-season and all-time records are included at the end of this release.
Ruiz has nine more goals than anyone else in the ASUN this year. Additionally, he has 14 more points than any other player in the league.
Ruiz has scored the most goals in a single season in the conference dating back to 2006. Additionally, Sobers-Assue's 11 goals rank tied for 7th in league history in the last decade. The ASUN single-season record for goals is 27 set by Clint Adams of Stetson in 1993.
ASUN Single-Season Goals Record (Since 2006)
1. Albert Ruiz, FGCU (2016) – 20
2. Gordon Wild, USC Upstate (2015) – 16
Anton Axelsson, Jacksonville (2007) – 16
4. Tommy Krizanovic, Jacksonville (2006) – 14
5. Richard Jata, Campbell (2008) – 12
Garrett Pettis, Lipscomb (2008) – 12
7. Arion Sobers-Assue, FGCU (2016) – 11
Four Others Tied
NATIONAL RANKING
FGCU is ranked #18 this week in the highly-respected College Soccer News National Poll, in addition to appearing at #20 in the NSCAA poll, which is the only poll the NCAA officially recognizes.
The Eagles were ranked as high as #11 in the NSCAA poll late in the regular season, which was the highest for any FGCU program in the D-I era (2007-08). FGCU has been ranked in the NSCAA top 25 each of the past eight weeks. Initially, FGCU appeared at #15 – four spots higher than the team's previous regular-season high mark of #19, set three times and most recently last September. The Green and Blue moved up to #12 and remained there for two weeks before the #11 ranking four weeks ago.
MORE AWARDS
For the first time in conference history, a team secured five straight ASUN Player of the Week honors in men's soccer as FGCU collected its fifth in a row in October when Sobers-Assue garnered the award for the second time.
It continued an award-winning season for FGCU, which has already claimed all of the below individual honors this year:
Sept. 19:
Albert Ruiz, ASUN Player of the Week
Sept. 19:
Sawyer Jackman, ASUN Defensive Player of the Week
Sept. 19:
Albert Ruiz, College Soccer News National Player of the Week
Sept. 20:
Albert Ruiz, TopDrawerSoccer National Team of the Week
Sept. 26:
Arion Sobers-Assue, ASUN Player of the Week
Sept. 27:
Arion Sobers-Assue, NSCAA National Player of the Week
Sept. 27:
Arion Sobers-Assue, TopDrawerSoccer National Team of the Week
Oct. 3:
Albert Ruiz, ASUN Player of the Week
Oct. 4:
Albert Ruiz, TopDrawerSoccer National Player of the Week
Oct. 10:
Shak Adams, ASUN Player of the Week
Oct. 17:
Arion Sobers-Assue, ASUN Player of the Week
RECORD NIGHTS
On Sept. 27 at Rutgers, Ruiz scored all three of his goals by the 9:02 mark, and is believed to have recorded the fastest hat trick – in terms of time from the start of the game – in D-I history. The junior scored at the 5:42, 8:24 and 9:02 marks. The previous record is believed to have been held by Indiana's Steve Burks, who tallied three goals 11:41 into a contest with Indiana State on Oct. 6, 1973.
With 3:20 between the first and third goals, Ruiz is the 3rd-fastest player to score three-straight goals at any point of a game in D-I history. He is bettered only by Illinois-Chicago's John Stone, who did it in 2:15 (28:58-31:13) in 1985, and Saint Joseph's Kyle Patterson in 2:31 (28:02-30:33) in 2007.
In addition to Ruiz's three goals, Sobers-Assue also scored at the 9:21 mark, giving the Eagles three goals as a team in a span of just 57 seconds. That is the 2nd-fastest in NCAA D-I history at any point of a game, behind only Syracuse's 43-second span versus Fordham on Oct. 17, 1989.
The Eagles found a way back into that incredible, historical list again on Oct. 11 when FGCU scored three goals in a 3:47 span to erase a 1-0 deficit against USF. Those goals came at the 66:03, 66:59 and 69:50 marks, ranking as the 15th-fastest in D-I history for a three-goal span by the same team.
HAT TRICK PARTY
Ruiz is the first player in program history with two hat tricks, and it took just 10 days between them. The first men's soccer season at FGCU was 2007, and it took until Oct. 31, 2010, for a Green and Blue member to record a hat trick when Scott Harrison finally did it versus North Florida. Nearly six years went by before another occurred, and that happened with Ruiz against UNCW on Sept. 17. It then took just three more days for the third hat trick in program history to occur as Sobers-Assue netted three opposite FAU on Sept. 20.
START ANOTHER STREAK
After jumping out to a 2-0 lead not even 15 minutes into its match Oct. 18, FGCU allowed North Florida to score three unanswered goals and leave the FGCU Soccer Complex with a 3-2 triumph. The loss broke a 29-game home regular-season conference unbeaten streak (26-0-3) for FGCU against ASUN members dating back to 2008.
ANIMO, THOMAS
FGCU lost freshman central defender
Thomas Delplace (Toulouse, France/Scientific Bac) for the year with a broken leg suffered just more than three minutes into the Eagles' match at UCF on Sept. 14. Delplace cut across the box and legally challenged what would have been a quality Knights' scoring chance, but his shin collided with the attacking UCF player's leg.
In honor of their teammate, FGCU players have started to wear T-shirts in pre-game warmups with text that reads "Animo Thomas" – which translates to "Cheer Up, Thomas" in Spanish.
FGCU Career Records
|
GOALS |
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POINTS |
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| 1 |
Albert Ruiz (14-16) |
28 |
|
1 |
Albert Ruiz (14-16) |
63 |
| 2 |
Cristian Raudales (08-11) |
19 |
|
2 |
Cristian Raudales (08-11) |
43 |
| 3 |
Felipe DeSousa (12-14) |
18 |
|
3 |
Felipe DeSousa (12-14) |
38 |
| 4 |
Henry Penagos (10-14) |
13 |
|
4 |
Arion Sobers-Assue |
34 |
| 5 |
Arion Sobers-Assue (14-16) |
12 |
|
5 |
Josey Portillo (08-11) |
31 |
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Scott Harrison (08-11) |
12 |
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FGCU Single-Season Records
FOLLOW ALONG
For up-to-the minute information and a behind-the-scenes look at the FGCU men's soccer program, follow on Twitter @FGCU_MSoccer, Instagram @FGCU_MSoccer, Facebook /FGCUMSoccer and YouTube /FGCUAthletics.
COACH BUTEHORN
FGCU is led by Bob Butehorn, who has coached six professional players and 63 ASUN All-Conference selections since FGCU started its program in 2007. In just six years of postseason eligibility, Butehorn has guided FGCU to four ASUN Tournament championships and NCAA Tournament appearances – in 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2016 – and won an unprecedented six-straight ASUN regular-season championships from 2010-15. His teams have been ranked nationally on several occasions by multiple media outlets, including a program-record #11 NSCAA ranking in 2016. Now in his 14th season as a head coach, Butehorn has a 129-93-27 (.572) overall record, 95-62-23 (.592) mark in his 10th season at FGCU and 52-18-7 (.721) record in ASUN contests.
SUPPORT THE CAUSE
FGCU Athletics sponsors events throughout the year to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics' charities of choice. For more information, including how to make a contribution, please visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.
