BILLINGS, Mont. – Entering the final few weeks of the 2018 season this weekend, the Montana State University Billings men's soccer team begins a four-game road stretch.
 
The Yellowjackets (5-7-2, 2-4-1 GNAC) open with a Thursday match at Northwest Nazarene University (3-8-1, 3-3) in Nampa, Idaho, before playing at Seattle Pacific University (8-6, 4-3) on Saturday evening. Kickoff against the Nighthawks on Thursday is at 4 p.m. Mountain time, and the game against the Falcons on Saturday is slated for 7 p.m. Pacific/8 p.m. Mountain. Live video and live statistics will be available for both matches online through the MSUB Stretch Internet portal here.
 
MSUB will play its final two road matches next week at Concordia (October 25) and Saint Martin's (October 27), before closing the season at home against No. 1 Simon Fraser on November 3.
 
The 'Jackets lost to Saint Martin's University 3-2 in their lone game last week, and had a bye on Saturday. "I am really looking forward to this week's games," said MSUB head coach Alex Balog. "We now will find out what our team and players are made of. The last few days have been a process of looking in the mirror and taking ownership of the product we have put on the field so far this season. I have the utmost confidence and belief that this group can turn it around and finish the season in a positive manner. Neither of the games this week will be easy, but we have enough talent and character to get positive results in both games."
 
BUZZING IN SEATTLE: Saturday's game will be the second in a doubleheader at Interbay Stadium, as the MSUB women's soccer team will also be in town to face the Falcons. After the women's match at 3 p.m. local time, the men will kick off at 7 p.m. under the lights. It will be the lone doubleheader this year – home or away – with both Yellowjacket teams squaring off against the same opponent.
 
MARNEAU CONTINUES PRODUCTIVITY IN MIDFIELD: Directly impacting MSUB's offense for the second straight game, sophomore Guillaume Marneau scored his first goal of the year in the loss to Saint Martin's. He also played a part on the team's other goal in the match, as it was his on-target shot that led to an eventual own goal by the Saints. Overall he played a career-high 86 minutes against SMU, topping his previous best of 77 which came last week when he had an assist against Concordia. 

PALOMINO SURFACES ON SCORE SHEET: Providing the assist on Marneau's goal last week was senior striker Ricardo Palomino, who handed out his first assist of the year and upped his point total to five. After two goals early in the year and last week's assist, Palomino is up to 54 career points as he continues to rank No. 5 in MSUB history.
 
PEREZ ADAPTING WELL TO STARTING ROLE: Freshman forward Andres Perez earned a starting spot on September 22 against Western Washington and hasn't looked back since, with six consecutive starts up top. He has yielded a goal and an assist in that time span, and his 69 minutes played last week against SMU were his second most of the season. Perez has been highly accurate in his shooting this season, as his shots-on-goal percentage of .538 ranks second on the team (seven on target in 13 attempts).
 
MAXWELL FINDING ROLE AT OUTSIDE BACK: Like Perez, fellow freshman Bryan Maxwell has made the most of his opportunities over the last two weeks. Starting each of the last three matches, Maxwell has played all 290 minutes on the defensive unit. Overall he has seen time in a dozen games with nine starts in his first collegiate season, and has played the full time in 8 of 9 starts.
 
KOWACHEK AMONG LEAGUE'S MOST EFFICIENT GOAL SCORERS: With six goals on the season, senior forward Dana Kowachek is MSUB's leader and ranks eighth in the GNAC. While playing a total of 949 minutes on the season, Kowachek has emerged as one of the most efficient goal scorers in the GNAC in terms of minutes per goal where he also ranks in the top-10.
 
GNAC Men's Soccer Minutes-Per-Goal Leaders (as of October 16, 2018)

Rank	Player	School	Goals	Minutes	Minutes Per Goal
1	Connor Glennon	Simon Fraser	15	871	58.1
2	Titus Grant	Seattle Pacific	11	740	67.3
3	Matteo Polisi	Simon Fraser	15	1,073	71.5
4	Rafael Junqueira	Northwest Nazarene	7	646	92.3
5	Jake Ferry	Seattle Pacific	3	453	151.0
6	Mamadi Camara	Simon Fraser	7	1,059	151.3
7	Georg Cholewa	Western Washington	7	1,067	152.4
8	Dzenan Bezdrob	Simon Fraser	2	315	157.5
9	Dana Kowachek	MSU Billings	6	949	158.2
10	Alden Massey	Seattle Pacific	5	803	160.6

Northwest Nazarene University Nighthawks
Thursday, October 18 – 4 PM – Nampa, Idaho
2018 Record: 3-8-1, 3-3 GNAC
Head Coach: Joel DeLass, 3rd season
2017 Record: 8-6-3, 5-4-3 GNAC (3rd place)
First Meeting: NNU 4, MSUB 2 (September 29 at Billings, MT)
 
Since defeating MSUB 4-2 in the first meeting between the teams, NNU has hit a rough patch with three straight losses. The Nighthawks had back-to-back 5-0 losses at the hands of No. 1 Simon Fraser and Western Washington, before losing 3-2 to Seattle Pacific in their lone match last week. NNU will host Concordia on Saturday after Thursday's game against MSUB.
 
NNU is being led by one of the conference's top scorers in Rafael Junqueira, who is tied for fourth in the league with seven goals. One of those came in the match against MSUB last time, and he has reached his team-leading goal total coming off the bench in half of the 12 games he has played. He is one of just four players in the conference to average one goal every 100 minutes played or fewer, as his minutes per goal mark of 92.3 ranks fourth behind Connor Glennon of Simon Fraser (58.1), Titus Grant of Seattle Pacific (67.3), and Matteo Polisi of Simon Fraser (71.5).
 
Jake Levine has also reached double figures in points with 10, as he has scored three goals and added four assists in 10 matches. Alex Mitrovic is the team's other double-figure scorer with four on the year, and Logan Wood is tied with Levine for the team lead at four assists.
 
Sam Ho is one of the GNAC's top midfielder's, as he joins Mitrovic and Wood as the only three field players to have started all 12 matches.
 
Jacob Hillyer has been the team's main starter in goal, with 35 saves in nine matches and a goals-against average of 2.71. Hillyer also has the team's lone shutout of the season.
 
The Series: NNU holds a 16-11-2 all-time series advantage and is 8-6 in games played in Nampa. The Nighthawks have now won three straight matches and four of the last five.
 
Last Time Out: NNU scored the first three goals and Junqueira added one more in the 86th minute to combat MSUB's comeback effort. Guillaume Kremer scored twice to pull the score to 3-2, but the Nighthawks prevailed thanks to first-half finishes by Dominic Abdel-Ahad, Levine, and Mitrovic.
 

Date	Location	H/A/N	Result	Score
9-25-97	Nampa, ID	A	L	2-1
8-28-99	Golden, CO	N	W	2-0
9-15-00	Ellensburg, WA	N	L	2-1
10-20-00	Colorado Springs, CO	N	W	5-2
9-15-01	Nampa, ID	A	W	3-0
9-20-02	Nampa, ID	A	W	5-1
10-12-02	Nampa, ID	A	W	3-0
9-20-08	Billings, MT	H	L	2-1
10-17-08	Nampa, ID	A	L	3-2
10-3-09	Billings, MT	H	T (2 OT)	2-2
10-20-09	Nampa, ID	A	W	3-0
10-9-10	Nampa, ID	A	L	2-1
11-6-10	Billings, MT	H	L	2-1
10-1-11	Billings, MT	H	W	2-1
10-29-11	Nampa, ID	A	W (OT)	4-3
10-6-12	Nampa, ID	A	L	1-0
11-3-12	Billings, MT	H	L	2-0
10-12-13	Billings, MT	H	T (2 OT)	0-0
11-9-13	Nampa, ID	A	L	5-1
9-20-14	Nampa, ID	A	L	2-0
11-8-14	Billings, MT	H	L	3-0
10-3-15	Nampa, ID	A	L	1-0 (NNU #19)
10-15-15	Billings, MT	H	W	1-0
9-22-16	Nampa, ID	A	W	3-0
10-15-16	Billings, MT	H	L (OT)	4-3
9-21-17	Billings, MT	H	W	3-2
10-14-17	Nampa, ID	A	L	3-1
9-29-18	Billings, MT	H	L	4-2

Seattle Pacific University Falcons
Saturday, October 20 – 7 PM Pacific/8 PM Mountain – Seattle, Washington
2018 Record: 8-6, 4-3 GNAC
Head Coach: Mark Collings, 11th season
2017 Record: 11-5-1, 7-4-1 GNAC
First Meeting: SPU 3, MSUB 2 (September 25 at Billings, MT)
 
The Falcons are perhaps the hottest team in the GNAC aside from No. 1 Simon Fraser, as they have won five of their last six games with the lone defeat in that stretch against the top team in the nation at home. Last week, SPU topped Western Washington 4-2 before a 3-2 victory over Northwest Nazarene.
 
The Falcons close a six-game home stand with Saturday's contest against the 'Jackets, and hold a 5-1 record in home games this season.
 
Titus Grant, who leads the team and ranks third in the GNAC with 11 goals, was named the GNAC Player of the Week after notching a hat trick in the win over Northwest Nazarene. Grant's three goals all came within a span of nine minutes, and he also scored in the win over WWU last Thursday to claim the conference's weekly honor. His pace of 67.3 minutes per goal is second in the GNAC only to Glennon of SFU, and he has accounted for more than one third of his team's 29 goals in 14 games.
 
Alden Massey – another highly efficient goal scorer – ranks second on the team with five goals and has added a pair of assists for 12 points. Overall 10 different Falcons have found the net, and all but four players on their roster have either scored or notched an assist.
 
Though no player on the team has started all 14 games, Nik Reierson and Ed Weise have been among the most consistent each with more than 1,150 minutes played defensively.
 
In goal, Lars Helleren has started 11 matches with 47 saves and a goals-against average of 1.90. Kary Whitney played the second half between the posts last week against NNU, and has seen time in four games with one shutout this year.
 
The Series: SPU holds a commanding 18-5-5 record all-time against MSUB, and is 13-2-3 in matches played in Seattle. The teams have split the last five matches 2-2-1, but SPU has lost just twice in the last 19 games dating back a decade to the 2009 season.
 
Last Time Out: The 'Jackets suffered a frustrating 3-2 defeat at home on September 27, when SPU's Chris Cole scored the game-winner with 40 seconds left. After Kremer and Kowachek each scored to give MSUB a 2-1 lead, Grant tied it in the 70th minute before Coles' winner. All five goals in the game came in the final 45 minutes of play.

Date	Location	H/A/N	Result	Score
10-18-99	Seattle, WA	A	L	9-2
10-16-00	Seattle, WA	A	L	13-0
10-7-02	Seattle, WA	A	L	3-0
9-19-03	Seattle, WA	A	L	3-0
9-28-04	Seattle, WA	A	L	5-1 (SPU #10)
9-20-07	Seattle, WA	A	T (2 OT)	1-1
10-22-07	Billings, MT	H	W	2-0
10-4-08	Billings, MT	H	W	1-0
11-6-08	Seattle, WA	A	W	4-2
9-19-09	Billings, MT	H	T (2 OT)	1-1
10-17-09	Seattle, WA	A	L	4-1
9-30-10	Billings, MT	H	L	2-0
10-23-10	Seattle, WA	A	L	2-1
9-17-11	Seattle, WA	A	L	2-0
10-13-11	Billings, MT	H	T (2 OT)	0-0
9-22-12	Billings, MT	H	T (2 OT)	1-1 (SPU #2)
10-11-12	Seattle, WA	A	L	2-0 (SPU #9)
9-28-13	Seattle, WA	A	L	3-2
10-19-13	Billings, MT	H	L	2-0
10-9-14	Seattle, WA	A	L	2-1
11-1-14	Billings, MT	H	L	1-0 (SPU #2)
10-8-15	Billings, MT	H	L	3-1 (SPU #18)
10-31-15	Seattle, WA	A	L	1-0 (SPU #9)
9-29-16	Seattle, WA	A	T (2 OT)	1-1
10-22-16	Billings, MT	H	W	1-0
9-28-17	Billings, MT	H	L	2-1
10-21-17	Seattle, WA	A	W	2-1
9-27-18	Billings, MT	H	L	3-2