Friday, November 14, 2014

SEATTLE – Going to college. Going to the NCAA soccer tournament.
 
In the fall of 2011, Evan Robicheau was still figuring out the former when the Seattle Pacific Falcons earned an opportunity to do the latter.
 
Fast forward to this fall. Robicheau and teammate Sean Russell are both on their way to completing challenging courses of study: Robicheau in business / finance, Russell in engineering.
 
And the nationally ranked Falcons, for whom Robicheau and Russell are the only two seniors among the 24 players, are on the way to their fourth straight NCAA Division II men's tournament.

"I was kind of surprised to make it to every single postseason, but it has been a great pleasure going every year," said Robicheau, a solid 6-foot, 175-pound defender who has been part of a back four that has allowed just eight goals in 18 games.

"My freshman year, I wasn't as focused on postseason. Coming into college, it was a new scene, a new experience, something I'd never lived through before – my mind was elsewhere.
                                                                             
"It wasn't until my sophomore or junior year that I started to take soccer seriously."
 
That perfect 4-for-4 postseason possibility – coming after the Falcons had missed four straight NCAAs – was foremost in Russell's mind from that day in 2011 when he arrived on campus from Garfield High School  in central Seattle.
 
"We set the bar high freshman year, and it's something we've really worked hard to live up to," said Russell, a 5-11 forward with five goals this season and 12 for his career. "Getting into the tournament is something we expected ourselves to do. We would have been disappointed if we hadn't."
 
Ranked No. 4 in the country and No. 1 in the West, SPU did more than just get into the tournament. It's a host school for the regionals. The Falcons will put their 15-1-2 record, and indeed, their entire season, on the line Saturday night when they tangle with Great Northwest Athletic Conference rival Northwest Nazarene in a second-round game.
 
Kickoff at Interbay Stadium is at 7 p.m. NNU advanced to that game by beating conference stablemate Simon Fraser on Thursday at Interbay, 1-0.
 
Certainly, the Falcons will be familiar with the Crusaders. They split a pair of regular-season games, each winning 1-0 at home on a set piece.
 
In fact, those two goals this fall – one off of a free kick for SPU in Seattle, the other off a penalty kick for Northwest Nazarene in Nampa – are the only two scores between the teams for their past six games.
 
"We know what we're up against and we know what we have to do," Russell said.
 
JUST GETTING THE JOB DONE

Whether they're on the field earning all-conference honors, in class working their way toward GNAC All-Academic awards, or merely sitting and having a conversation, Evan Robicheau and Sean Russell will come across as articulate, intelligent, and businesslike.
 
What they don't bring with them is flash, dash – or brash.
 
That's one of the reasons Seattle Pacific head coach Mark Collingsbrought them into his program, and believed they could do exactly what they've done:

Get the Falcons back into the national picture year in and year out.
 
"We knew we were getting two high-character kids whom we felt we could build something around," Collings said. "It was a small (recruiting) class, so we knew we had to get a couple guys who would stick around and help lead the program.
 
"Both of them are guys who show up and do what they need to do," Collings added. "They're there for their teammates and there for the coaches."
 
For Robicheau, that means staying at home in the back to help keep opponents off the scoreboard. Not only have the Falcons yielded a mere eight goals – never more than one to any team – they also have 10 clean sheets
 
"We set a goal of getting 10 shutouts this season, and we hit our mark with that," said Robicheau, who wanted to play close to home so his family could make the 35-mile trip north from Puyallup to watch him. "All around, our defense has just been really focused. We're really using a lot of communication during the game and focusing on the field of play."
 
Russell makes his home at the other end of the pitch. At first glance, his five goals for the season might not seem like a lot. But consider this: The Falcons have 35 goals as a team, and fully a dozen players have put at least one into the back of the net.
 
"We know that no matter what on any day, there's going to be someone who steps up," Russell said. "It's not always going to be the leading scorer. But there's always going to be a guy ready to step up and score a goal for us."
 
'STICK TO THE SYSTEM, STICK TO THE PLAN'

During a concurrent school-record 13-game winning streak and 15-game unbeaten streak, five of those goals brought the Falcons from behind. Seattle Pacific went on to win four of those games; the other (at Chico State) ended in a 1-1 tie.
 
"It's the confidence we have in our system," Robicheau said. "When something doesn't go our way, everyone is just relaxed and gets even more focused."

Added Russell, "Whenever we went down, everyone worked, stuck to the system, stuck to the plan, and we got the goals we needed."
 
Even on those days when things didn't go as well as they would have liked – that 1-0 loss at Northwest Nazarene on Oct. 30, or the 0-0 tie against Saint Martin's in the regular-season finale last Saturday – Russell, Robicheau, and their teammates always could look forward to the next game.
 
Now, only a win guarantees a next game. But both have no doubt the Falcons can keep those next games coming.
 
"I think we're capable of going the whole way," Robicheau said. "If we win this Saturday, we would have two more home games (the West Region finals next Thursday, and a national quarterfinal game next Saturday). That automatically gives us three games in our own routine, getting proper rest, and still able to go to classes.
 
"If we're able to take care of those three, you couldn't give us any more motivation (than that). You might as well win it if you're that far."
 
Looking ahead is fine. But Russell believes the most important part of the journey is the first 45 minutes on Saturday against Northwest Nazarene.
 
"The first half … if anything, that's where we've struggled this year, starting out a little slow," he said. "But if we can come out flying, I think we're going to put ourselves in a really good spot, hopefully get some early goals, and just end the game early."
 
Collings would like nothing more than to see his two senior stalwarts stretch their careers beyond Saturday – or even beyond next week.
 
"If you could write a script for senior year, it obviously could get a little better," he said in reference to the possibility of a deep postseason run. "But it doesn't get much better than this year."
 
Unless, of course, it's four years in a row to the NCAA Tournament.
 
That's how good it has been for Evan Robicheau and Sean Russell.