Tuesday, September 17, 2013

PORTLAND, Ore. – Simon Fraser moved up in the National Coaches Association of America national rankings as far as it could, jumping from No. 2 last week up to No. 1 in the latest poll released Tuesday morning.

The Clan is a perfect 4-0 this season and has scored 17 goals, the second most in all of NCAA Division II.

Seattle Pacific, which also won its two games last week, is now No. 9 in the NSCAA west region rankings as the Falcons have given up only one goal this season.

Northwest Nazarene, ranked No. 10 in last week’s NSCAA west region poll dropped out of this week’s rankings after tying its only contest last week.

COMING UP: As GNAC play gets underway this week there is potential for significant shuffling amongst the top half of the standings.

MSU Billings and NNU will both be tested heavily as the schools each welcome SFU and WWU this week. The Yellowjackets and Crusaders are hungry for their first wins of 2013 and have the potential to pull off a major upset.

Seattle Pacific heads east with Saint Martin’s as the Washington schools get set to take on SD Mines and Mary.

PRESEASON WRAP-UP:

As preseason play concluded last week, no major surprises emerged from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings. The table is nearly identical to the rankings produced by the preseason coaches’ poll, with the only difference being Western Washington one place ahead of Northwest Nazarene.

Simon Fraser notched a pair of wins in its final preseason contests, albeit in two matches that were polar opposites of one another. On Thursday the Clan fell behind early to Hawaii Pacific and battled back for a hard fought 2-1 victory. All SFU did after that was come within one goal of tying the GNAC single game record in a 9-0 blowout of Trinity Lutheran on Saturday, a game in which three different players scored more than once. 

The first GNAC hat trick of the season by SFU’s Glenn Paden (F, 6-0, Jr., Lake Forest, WA – Oregon State) highlighted the one-sided match and earned him GNAC Offensive Player of the Week honors.

Seattle Pacific played two much less eventful but equally successful matches in winning both of its contests 2-0. Goalkeeper Cody Lang (GK, 6-4, Fr., Spokane, WA – Lewis & Clark) played all 180 minutes and was well protected as he made just three saves last week. The Falcons have allowed just one goal thus far, the fewest in the conference.

Western Washington logged its second win of the season on Thursday when the Vikings bested Notre Dame de Namur 2-1 in their 2013 home opener. GNAC Defensive Player of the Week Troy McCarty (D, 6-0, Fr., Snohomish, WA – Snohomish) helped anchor the defense and contributed the Vikings’ first goal on his only shot of the game.

WWU caught a tough break on Saturday as Hawaii Pacific grabbed a narrow 1-0 win in Bellingham, WA after losing to Simon Fraser in Bernaby, BC two days before.

First year head coach Alex Balog has commanded the Montana State Billings squad through arguably the three most competitive matches of the season, but has yet to earn his first victory. The Yellowjackets dropped a pair of overtime road matches last week by the score of 2-1, and have played extra time in three games so far this season.

Fredy Razo (F, 5-10, Jr., Irvine, CA – Irvine Valley) gave Northwest Nazarene the lead twice against Dixie State on Saturday – once in each half - but the Crusaders could not take advantage of either opportunity as the teams battled to a 2-2 overtime draw.

Mary scored one goal in each of its first two contests of 2013, but dropped both as the Marauders lost 2-1 on Thursday to Fort Lewis and 3-1 on Saturday at the hands of Texas A&M International.

The results weren’t much better for Saint Martin’s or South Dakota Mines, as both schools dropped two matches and remain winless in the young season.