RAIDER STADIUM | ASHLAND, OREGON
2:30 p.m. Friday – Eastern Oregon at SOU | Live Stats | Stream
2:30 p.m. Saturday – College of Idaho at SOU | Live Stats | Stream

ASHLAND – The Southern Oregon University men's soccer team will put a five-game winning streak on the line as it starts a second-half push for the Cascade Conference crown at Raider Stadium.

The Raiders (8-4 overall, 5-2 CCC) welcome Eastern Oregon (6-5-1, 3-4) to town on Friday and College of Idaho (7-3-1, 5-2) on Saturday for a pair of 2:30 p.m. matches. They enter the weekend tied for fourth place on the conference table, but three of their final six regular-season contests will be against teams that are either tied with or in front of them.

LAST WEEK IN REVIEW: SOU banked six points on its road trip by defeating Carroll (Mont.), 1-0, and Walla Walla (Wash.), 7-0. At Carroll, Adrian Villegas came through in the 81st minute by following in his initial shot that was blocked after being set up by Sky Charley-Bolyard and Alan Gaytan. Meanwhile, the Raiders limited the Saints to one shot on goal. The outcome at Walla Walla was predictably more lopsided as Gaytan tallied twice and Tybalt Thornberry had a goal and an assist. In seven all-time meetings with the Wolves, SOU has outscored them 62-3.

NAIA TOP 25: First-place Warner Pacific – the CCC's only unbeaten team at 12-0 overall and 7-0 in the conference – moved up one spot to No. 22 in this week's NAIA coaches' poll. Second-place Corban, which dropped a 1-0 decision at WPU two weeks ago, is the first team out of the Top 25 in the "receiving votes" category. SOU gets a shot at Corban next week in Salem and hosts WPU on the final day of the regular season, Oct. 29.

BRIEFLY:

• Tybalt Thornberry on Monday became SOU's first CCC Defensive Player of the Week this season after helping the Raiders to back-to-back shutouts and recording a goal and an assist at Walla Walla. He's No. 3 on the CCC assists leaderboard with six on the season, just one off the league lead. The junior has recorded three of them during the Raiders' five-game winning streak.
• Alan Gaytan took over the top spot on SOU's all-time goals list with the 22nd and 23rd of his career at Walla Walla. The junior, an All-America honorable mention recipient last season, got there in 53 career outings and has four goals this season. Senior Noah Addie is right behind him with 21 goals in 77 appearances.
• The Raiders lead the CCC at 20.1 shots per game during conference play. They've been out-shot just once in 12 games this season.
• The Raiders have shut out four consecutive opponents for the first time since 2018, when they turned in five straight clean sheets during two separate stretches. During the streak they've surrendered just 11 shots on goal and recorded 54 of their own. Casey Ruvolo's goals-allowed average of 0.6 ranks third in the conference, and Anthony Armenta's (0.9) ranks fifth.
• SOU is getting it done in the clutch to get back into the CCC championship race. The Raiders' five-game winning streak started when they came back to win from a multi-goal deficit for the first time in team history at Oregon Tech, and they've scored the game-winners in two of their last three outings with less than 10 minutes remaining.
• Sam Walker leads the team with seven goals, the seventh-highest total in the circuit. He's registered three in CCC play.
• Over the last five years, SOU is 32-3-1 at Raider Stadium.

ABOUT EASTERN OREGON: The Raiders are unbeaten all-time against the Mountaineers at 6-0-1 and have never given up a goal against them in a regular-season matchup. EOU has lost four of its last six games and been shut out in three of them. Max Rose leads the team at four goals and one assist, and keeper Dalton Mauzay is allowing 1.4 goals per game despite a .741 save percentage.

ABOUT COLLEGE OF IDAHO: The Yotes enter the weekend locked up with SOU in the standings and riding a three-game winning streak. After being picked sixth in the CCC preseason poll, Eric Hornung has boosted them with six goals while Joao Boastos, Caio Pereira and Hugo dos Santos own four apiece. The Raiders are 6-1 all-time against C of I with shutout victories in each of the last four meetings.