Men's Soccer Opens the Home Slate Against North Florida and No. 13 Colgate

AIR FORCE (3-1) vs. NORTH FLORIDA (0-4)
Friday, Sept. 7, 7 p.m.
Cadet Soccer Stadium, USAFA

AIR FORCE vs. #13 COLGATE
Sunday, Sept. 9, 1 p.m.
Cadet Soccer Stadium, USAFA

THIS WEEK: Air Force opens its home slate with a pair of matches against North Florida and No. 13 Colgate, Fri., Sept. 7 at 7 p.m., and Sun., Sept. 9 at 1 p.m., respectively. The meeting with North Florida marks the first time that the teams will meet. The match against 13th-ranked Colgate marks the second meeting between the teams. The last time Air Force played Colgate was in the 2015 campaign where the Falcons fell, 2-3, on the road.

UP NEXT: The Falcons continue the second half of a four-game home stretch against No. 16 San Francisco and Harvard, Sept. 14 and 16, respectively. Air Force will take on San Francisco, Friday at 7 p.m. MT, and Harvard, Sunday at 11 a.m. MT. Both matches will be played at Cadet Soccer Stadium, USAFA. The meeting against San Francisco marks the 14^th meeting between the teams; the Dons lead the series, 6-4-3, with Air Force winning in the most recent meeting in 2016, 4-3, in San Francisco. Air Force and Harvard will be meeting for the first time.

LAST WEEK: On Friday, Aug. 31, a late burst of energy propelled the Falcons past Navy, 2-0, at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland. On Sunday, Sept. 2, Air Force notched two goals while handing UMBC its first loss of the 2018 campaign. The game marked the Falcons' third-straight road win in a four-game East coast season-opening road stretch. Austin Dewing logged a goal in each victory over the weekend.

FALCON KEEPER EARNS WAC DEFENSIVE POTW: Andrea Seazzu was named Western Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Week, for Aug. 27-Sep. 2. Seazzu, a junior goalkeeper from Albuquerque, N.M. (Albuquerque HS), was a brick wall in net for the Falcons, earning a pair of shutouts in Maryland. Against rival Navy on Friday, he made a pair of saves in a 2-0 win and followed that up with three more saves in a 2-0 win at UMBC on Sunday. Through four games in net, he has a 0.48 goals against average and an .846 save percentage to go with a 3-1 record.

THE FALCONS AT A GLANCE: Seven seniors, a pair of juniors and a pair of sophomores make up the Falcons' starting 11, led by team captains Tucker Bone, Austin Dewing and Zane Moxley. Bone leads the squad with 51 career starts in 63 games played while Dewing has played in 60 career matches with 31 starts. Dewing leads the squad with three goals for six points while senior teammate Luis Martinez is the team's frontrunner in assists with two. Air Force has tallied six goals so far this season, only allowing two to Virginia Tech in the season opening loss.

Dewing and Klint Parker lead the squad with nine shots and six shots on goal apiece. As a team, Air Force has out shot their opponents in the last three games. In all four games played, The Falcons have taken 54 shots to all opponents 39 while taking nearly twice as many shots on frame as opponents faced (24-13).

The Air Force defense is firing on all cylinders, posting their third-straight shutout over three stout opponents. Seazzu is proving to be a human force field for opponents, notching 11 saves while posting his third-straight shutout this season for the most shutouts by any keeper in the WAC and tying 10 other goalies from across NCAA Div. I for the most shutouts. With the assistance of the Falcons' superior defensive line, Seazzu has seven shutouts in nine career appearances for an 8-1 career record in the Air Force cage. Junior defender Nick Blessing, along with Seazzu, have played every minute of the season thus far (379 minutes in four games). Blessing allegedly needs 4,000 calories a day to match his energy consumption when competing in season.

A QUICK LOOK AT THE OPPONENTS: North Florida has a trio of scorers so far this season, led by Mikey Connell who leads the team with one goal from six shots and four shots on frame. Nick Lodovico and AJ Williams have also tallied a goal apiece. Although the Ospreys are winless, they have had a pair of close one-goal losses to Mercer and Tulsa. Padraic Gilley has the majority of minutes in North Florida's net. He has a goals against average of 2.40 and a .562 save percentage.

The 13^th-ranked Raiders of Colgate come to Colorado on a 3-0 win-streak with wins over Pitt, Albany and Hofstra. Colgate will take on the No. 6 University of Denver Pioneers in an undefeated showdown, Friday evening in Denver. The Raiders will then travel south to take on Air Force in its second match of the weekend. Five Colgate players have tallied a goal apiece to make up all five goals scored this season. Aram Ouiligian leads the offense with five shots in a team-high 279 minutes played. Colgate's staunch defense has only given up one goal this season. Jacob Harris has recorded all 279 minutes in the Raiders' net, registering 10 saves for a .909 save percentage for the 14^th best percentage in the NCAA.

ON THE MAP: The United Soccer Coaches switched up the regional ranking system for 2018 and the WAC is now in the Far West Region with the Pac-12 and Big West conferences. Air Force is the top WAC school ranked, taking second, while Grand Canyon is third. UNLV is ranked seventh, followed by Utah Valley in eighth and Seattle U in ninth.

After knocking off two Top-25 programs to open the year, Grand Canyon is now a Top-25 team itself according to the three polls released at press time. In the United Soccer Coaches Top 25, the Lopes rank 24th, one spot ahead of defending national champion Stanford. GCU is 17th in the Top Drawer Soccer Top 25 and 25th in the College Soccer News Top 30. In the USC Top 25, both Air Force and UNLV were among those receiving votes while Seattle U held the 24th spot in the CSN Top 30. Air Force leads the United Soccer Coaches DI receiving-votes pool with 76 votes.

Men's Soccer Opens the Home Slate Against North Florida and No. 13 Colgate

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Players Mentioned

Nick Blessing

Tucker Bone

Austin Dewing

Luis Martinez

Zane Moxley

Klint Parker

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