LAKELAND, Fla.—After defeating Florida Memorial handily in their last contest, the 24
th-ranked Fire will travel to Thomas for a match that could determine the conference regular season champion on Wednesday before hosting Ave Maria later in the week.
GAME INFO:
#24 Southeastern University (10-2-1, 6-1 TSC) at Thomas University (6-4-2, 5-1-1 TSC)
Date: Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Time: 3:00 p.m.
Location: Thomasville, Ga.
Game Coverage: Live Updates- @SEUFireMSoccer on Twitter, Live Stats/Video- https://portal.stretchinternet.com/thomas/
Headlines:
Both Southeastern and Thomas come into their competition against each other playing well. The Night Hawks have notched at least a point in six of their last seven matches, while the Fire have done the same in nine of their last ten.
SEU's high-powered offense will clash with TU's strict defense in a contest that has a significant impact on the postseason standings. With a win against the Night Hawks, the Fire will secure the Sun Conference regular season championship; however, if Thomas is able to come away with a victory, the crown would likely go to TU since both teams have only one other game remaining.
SEU:
The Fire, who have tallied multiple goals in all but one match this year, are paced by their offense. Southeastern ranks 17
th in the nation in assists per game (2.5) and 25
th in goals per contest (3.1). SEU also gets an average of 17.7 shots off each game, ranking 30
th in the NAIA.
Southeastern's efficient offense means a plentiful amount of goals, especially for senior
Jake Van Der Luit. The forward averages a goal per match (14
th in the country) and has found the back of the net in seven of his last nine competitions. Because the Fire share the ball well, they also rank 38
th as a team in assists (30). Three SEU players (
Bruno Henrique,
Jonathan Jimenez and
Craig Barker) have at least five assists on the year, led by Jimenez with six.
Thomas:
The Night Hawks are coming off of a 3-1 win over Johnson & Wales, one of only four games Thomas has scored multiple goals (all wins). Despite a lack of goal-scoring, tight defensive play has translated to success for TU. Thomas has not given up more than two goals in any competition this season.
This strong defensive effort and success is largely due to goalkeeper Ben Barnes. Barnes, a redshirt junior from England, is only giving up a mere 0.86 goals per game, which ranks 22
nd in the NAIA. The Thomas goalie has blocked at least five opposing shots in five competitions, while posting a save percentage of .780 and three clean sheets.
Previous Meetings:
Thomas leads the overall series between the two schools with a 7-2 record in the nine meetings all-time. In those games, the Night Hawks have outscored the Fire 20-9, but Southeastern has won two of the past three encounters, taking the most recent game in Thomasville 1-0 in 2015.
GAME INFO:
#24 Southeastern University (10-2-1, 6-1 TSC) vs Ave Maria University (7-8-1, 3-3-1 TSC)
Date: Saturday, October 27, 2018
Time: 2:00 p.m.
Location: Lakeland, Fla.
Game Coverage: Live Updates- @SEUFireMSoccer on Twitter, Live Stats/Video- https://portal.stretchinternet.com/southeastern/
Ave Maria:
The Gyrenes face the Fire on a bit of a hot streak, winning three of their last four matches. During the stretch, AMU has outscored its opponents 10-6, the most goals in any four-game conference run by the Gyrenes this year.
Ave Maria recently defeated Webber 4-3 followed by a trouncing of Florida Memorial by a score of 5-1. In the two games, seven different players recorded tallies for AMU and three different players had multiple goals, including top-scorer Kaveon Dux. Dux leads Ave Maria with 12 goals on the year and three multi-goal efforts.
Head-to-Head:
The Fire have dominated the series with the Gyrenes, posting a 12-1 record against Ave Maria since 2006. Southeastern has been victorious in each of the last ten meetings, while winning all six home bouts versus AMU. When playing in Lakeland, SEU has outscored Ave Maria 28-1.
