Griz host Wildcats, Bengals to open league play
9/25/2014 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
The Montana soccer team will host Weber State and Idaho State this weekend as league matches begin for all 11 Big Sky Conference teams. The Grizzlies will host the Wildcats at 3 p.m. on Friday at South Campus Stadium and the Bengals at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
At a glance: Montana finished its nonconference schedule, the toughest one played in four years under coach Mark Plakorus, with a 4-5-0 record. Seven of those nine matches were played on the road. ... Weber State, picked second in the preseason coaches' poll with five first-place votes, went 3-6-0 in its nonconference matches and enters league play on a four-game losing streak, with 13 goals allowed in those four defeats. ... Idaho State is 3-4-0. Since beginning the season with wins over Minot State and Wyoming, the Bengals have gone 1-4-0. ISU has allowed two or more goals every match this season and has given up 19 in its last five matches.
The Griz soccer team also will be signing their 2014 schedule posters following Sunday's match.
Coverage: Both matches this weekend will have live video and live stats through GoGriz.com. Jackson Wagner will call the action.
Recent Big Sky Conference champions, all: This week's matches will feature the last three Big Sky Conference tournament champions. Montana won the 2011 title in a shootout over Weber State. Idaho State won in 2012 in a shootout over Montana, and Weber State won in 2013 in a shootout over Portland State.
Hawaii, common denominator: The Rainbow Wahine spent more than a week in the Rocky Mountain region recently and played all three teams to one-goal differences.
Hawaii won 4-3 at Weber State on Sept. 12, scoring the game-winning goal 30 seconds into the first overtime. Two days later the Rainbow Wahine were unable to hold a 4-2 lead at Idaho State and lost 5-4 as ISU's Amanda Ellsworth scored a hat trick, including the game-winner in the 84th minute.
Hawaii won 2-1 at Montana on Sunday. UH went up 2-0 with goals in the 25th and 58th minutes, then held on as the Grizzlies took 13 second-half shots. Brooke Moody's penalty kick in the 65th minute was Montana's lone goal.
Big Sky balance: Nine of the 11 league teams enter conference play this week having won between three and five nonconference games. Sacramento State (5-4-0) and Northern Colorado (5-4-1) both won five matches. Northern Arizona (4-3-1) emerged with the best winning percentage.
In the NCAA's RPI, Montana is one of four teams ranked higher than 200. Portland State is 89, Northern Arizona is 117, Montana is 177, and Northern Colorado is 198. Weber State ranks 236, Idaho State 239.
Not a good sign for the conference: Four league teams rank 300 or worse out of 332 Division I teams. North Dakota is 300, Sacramento State is 304, Idaho is 305, and Eastern Washington is 308.
What they are playing for: The top six teams when the dust settles on Friday, Oct. 31, will make the Big Sky Conference tournament.
The tournament will be held at the home of the regular-season champion, with quarterfinal matches between seeds 3 through 6 on Thursday, Nov. 6, semifinals on Friday, Nov. 7, and the championship match on Sunday, Nov. 9.
Around the Big Sky Conference: In other league matchups this weekend, Portland State and Sacramento State are on the Northern Arizona-Southern Utah road trip, and Northern Colorado and North Dakota play matches at Idaho.
Keep an eye on Friday night's PSU-NAU match. The Lumberjacks have won four straight, the last three by shutout, and the Vikings are unbeaten in their last 11 regular-season Big Sky matches dating back to 2012.
Good start required? After hosting Weber State and Idaho State this weekend, Montana will play four of its next five on the road. That might lead some to assume that picking up a minimum of four points this weekend would be critical for a team hoping to be in contention deep into October.
Coach Mark Plakorus is not one of them.
"It's the start of conference, and that's exciting, but nobody's going to win conference or lose conference or clinch a spot in the tournament because of what happens this weekend," said Plakorus, whose team opened league 1-2-1 in 2012 and still won a share of the regular-season title.
"More than anything we want to play well this week. We want to be playing at a high level for all of our conference matches. If we do that, things will take care of themselves."
More on Weber State: With almost all of its team intact from last year's NCAA tournament appearance, the Wildcats' 3-6-0 start has been a surprise. WSU opened the season at home with a 1-0 loss to NAIA Westminster and still is without a signature victory. ... Weber State, historically a stout defensive team, fell on the road last weekend at Loyola Marymount and Cal State Northridge by a combined score of 7-1. ... Junior forward Mackenzie Harrison, first-team All-Big Sky last season and the league's Offensive MVP, leads WSU with nine points, on three goals and three assists.
Series history: Montana and Weber State, the two winningest programs in Big Sky history, have fittingly split their matches since 1996. Both teams have won 11 times, with two draws. ... Montana won 1-0 on a Lauren Costa goal when Weber State last traveled to Missoula in 2012. Last season at Ogden, the Wildcats scored in the 43rd and 71st minutes to win 2-0. ... Montana is 8-3-1 against Weber State in Missoula.
More on Idaho State: The Bengals are the most porous defensive team in the Big Sky Conference, by a wide margin. As noted above, ISU has allowed at least two goals every match this season and hasn't held an opponent to fewer than three goals its last five matches. ... But Idaho State is talented offensively. Amanda Ellsworth, the Big Sky's co-Offensive MVP with Montana's Erin Craig in 2012, leads the league with seven goals. Freshman Maria Sanchez, a lock for Big Sky Newcomer of the Year, has five goals and three assists to give the Bengals the Big Sky's top two point-producing players.
Series history: Montana leads the series with Idaho State 9-6-4 and is unbeaten (2-0-3) against the Bengals in the teams' last five meetings. ... Of course one of those draws felt like a loss when Idaho State won the 2012 Big Sky tournament championship match in a shootout over the Grizzlies. ... Montana is 7-1-1 at home against Idaho State. The Bengals' lone win in Missoula came in 2006.
More on Montana: The Grizzlies have had eight different players score goals this fall, none more than two. ... Senior Chloe Torres and freshman Hallie Widner lead the team with six points. Both have scored a pair of goals and both have a pair of assists. ... In last Friday's 2-0 win over Colorado State in Montana's home opener, senior Tyler Adair scored her second goal of the season and seventh of her career to make it 1-0. Senior Paytyn Wheeler assisted on the goal to collect her first point since 2012 and her first assist since 2011. ... Widner made it 2-0 in the 33rd minute with her second goal of the season. Freshman Allie Lucas aided for her second assist of the season. ... Sophomore goalkeeper Kailey Norman earned the shutout, her third of the season and fourth of her career. ... Montana's 19 shots Sunday against Hawaii were a season high. ... Colorado State and Hawaii combined to take just four corner kicks last week.
Upcoming: Montana will face Sacramento State and Portland State on the road next week. The Grizzlies have not won a match on that road trip since 2008 and did not score a goal on the trip in either 2010 or 2012.
