Matchup: #11 FGCU (11-3-1, 3-1-0 ASUN) @ Jacksonville (5-8-0, 1-3-0 ASUN)
When: Tuesday, Oct. 25 | 6:30 PM | Jacksonville, Fla.
Links: Live Stats | Twitter
Coaches: Bob Butehorn (10th Season @ FGCU, 92-61-22; 14th Overall, 126-93-26) | Mauricio Ruiz (3rd Season @ Jacksonville, 10-32-1; Same Overall)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Looking to move within one win of matching the single-season program record for victories and continuing to improve its ASUN Tournament seed, the #11 FGCU men’s soccer team will play its postponed match from earlier this month at Jacksonville on Tuesday, Oct. 25, at 6:30 p.m.

KEY STORYLINES
The match against the Dolphins was originally scheduled for Oct. 8, but Hurricane Matthew forced its postponement until Tuesday evening. It will be the first of two ASUN matches this week for the Eagles, who are in search of their 7th-straight league regular-season title. The Green and Blue will face Lipscomb in Nashville on Saturday evening at 8 Eastern.

FGCU remains ranked at #11 in the NSCAA Top 25 Poll as this week’s poll will be released Tuesday afternoon. The Eagles continue to lead the nation in nearly every offensive category: goals (49 next closest: 38), points (137, next closest: 112), goals per game (3.27, next closest: 2.53) and points per game (9.13 next closest: 7.47). The goal and point totals are already single-season program records, far surpassing the previous marks of 35 and 108, respectively.

Individually, junior Albert Ruiz (Barcelona, Spain/ CE L’Hospitalet/UE Cornella) is tied for the national lead with 16 goals along with Marist’s Cameron Harr as those two have three more goals than any other players in Division I. Ruiz’s 1.14 goals-per-game average, 37 points and 2.64 points-per-game average are all the best in the country.

ASUN STANDINGS

Team	PTS	ASUN	OVERALL	REMAINING
North Florida	12	4-0-0	8-3-1	vs. NJIT; @ UPST
FGCU	9	3-1-0	11-3-1	@ JU; @ LIP
Lipscomb	9	3-2-0	8-5-1	vs. FGCU
NJIT	9	3-2-0	7-5-3	@ UNF
Jacksonville	3	1-3-0	5-8-0	vs. FGCU; @ STET
Stetson	3	1-4-0	4-8-2	vs. JU
USC Upstate	3	1-4-0	3-9-0	vs. UNF

ASUN TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
The 2016 ASUN Men’s Soccer Tournament will be a six-team, single-elimination tournament contested over two weeks. The top six teams based on regular season conference standings will advance to the tournament. The 1 seed will host the 4 vs. 5 seed, and the 2 seed will host the 3 vs. 6 seed on Friday, Nov. 4, and play the winner of those matches on Sunday, Nov. 6.

If FGCU receives either the 1 or 2 seed – because the women’s soccer team will be hosting the ASUN Tournament at the same time – the opening-round match will be played on Thursday, Nov. 3, and FGCU will play the winner on Saturday, Nov. 5.

Ties will be broken according to the established ASUN tiebreaker criteria:

Head-to-head results among teams involved in tie.

Goal differential versus teams involved in tie.

Goal differential in overall conference play.

Goals for in-conference play.

Non-conference RPI.

SCOUTING THE DOLPHINS
JU has scored just two goals in its four ASUN games, and both of those came in a 2-1 overtime victory against Lipscomb. The Dolphins have dropped 1-0 league matches to NJIT, North Florida and USC Upstate.

In conference play, Jacksonville’s 58.5 shot-on-goal percentage leads the ASUN. Mitchell Hopkins and Ignazio Muccilli each have eight shots on target, and the Dolphins’ leading goal scorer Kai Bennett adds seven.

Bennett has four goals and an assist on the campaign for a team-best nine points, while Alberto Escobedo has seven points off three goals and an assist. In net, Patrick Harding has a goals-against average of 1.24 and a pair of shutouts.

ALL-TIME vs. JACKSONVILLE: 6-3-0
After losing the first three meetings against JU and being out-scored in that timeframe, 9-1, FGCU has won the last six in a row versus the Dolphins, out-scoring them, 18-4. Last year, the Eagles claimed a 4-0 win over Jacksonville.

CLOSING IN ON HISTORY
With 11 wins, FGCU already owns the 2nd-most victories in the regular season in program history, bested only by the 13 from the 2010 team. That squad finished 13-3-2 in the final year in which FGCU was ineligible for the postseason as it went through its D-I transition (also the all-time single-season program win record). With a pair of triumphs this week, the Eagles will match that lucky 13 number and head into the ASUN Tournament with a chance to break the all-time single season wins record.

ASUN DOMINANCE
Despite a 3-2 loss to UNF last Tuesday, FGCU still owns a dominant 39-5-4 record in all ASUN regular-season games since the start of the 2010 season. Out of a possible 144 points that could have been earned in that time, the Green and Blue have claimed an impressive 121 of them (84 percent).

INSIDE THE STREAK
FGCU’s 10-game winning streak from Sept. 4-Oct. 14 was two better than the previous program record of eight set in 2010 and 2012. During the run, the Eagles out-scored their opponents, 40-15, and scored at least three goals in each of the last eight victories.

ONE FOR THE OTHER THUMB
By virtue of a 4-0-1 ASUN record last year, FGCU claimed an unprecedented sixth-straight ASUN Regular Season Championship and will be looking to extend that run to seven in 2016. Despite only joining the league and becoming a D-I member in 2007, FGCU was the first program in the history of the ASUN to claim at least a share of five-straight regular-season titles, let alone six in a row.

OFFENSIVE STALWART
Both Ruiz’s goal (16) and point totals (37) are by far single-season program records as the previous highs were seven and 17, respectively. Additionally, Ruiz has continued to build upon his career program record for points with 55 (previous: 43, Cristian Raudales) and goals with 24 (previous: 19, Raudales). More single-season and all-time records are included at the end of this release.

With the exception of teammate Arion Sobers-Assue’s (Miami, Fla./DeMatha Catholic HS) 11 goals, Ruiz has eight more goals than anyone else in the ASUN this year. Additionally, he has 18 more points than any other player in the league, again with the exception being Sobers-Assue’s 29.

NATIONAL RANKING
FGCU’s #11 national ranking is the highest for any FGCU program in the D-I era (2007-08). FGCU has been ranked in the NSCAA top 15 each of the past four weeks (new NSCAA poll released Tuesday afternoon). Four weeks ago, FGCU appeared at #15 – four spots higher than the team’s previous regular-season high mark of #19, set three times and most recently last September. This is just the fifth time in program history that FGCU has been ranked in the NSCAA poll – which is the only poll the NCAA officially recognizes.

MORE AWARDS
For the first time in conference history, a team secured five straight ASUN Player of the Week honors in men’s soccer as FGCU collected its fifth in a row last Monday when Sobers-Assue garnered the award for the second time. The redshirt sophomore scored twice, including the game-winner, and added an assist for five points in a 6-0 win over Stetson.

It continued an award-winning season for FGCU, which has already this year claimed all of the below individual honors:

Sept. 19: Albert Ruiz, ASUN Player of the Week

Sept. 19: Sawyer Jackman, ASUN Defensive Player of the Week

Sept. 19: Albert Ruiz, College Soccer News National Player of the Week

Sept. 20: Albert Ruiz, TopDrawerSoccer National Team of the Week

Sept. 26: Arion Sobers-Assue, ASUN Player of the Week

Sept. 27: Arion Sobers-Assue, NSCAA National Player of the Week

Sept. 27: Arion Sobers-Assue, TopDrawerSoccer National Team of the Week

Oct. 3: Albert Ruiz, ASUN Player of the Week

Oct. 4: Albert Ruiz, TopDrawerSoccer National Player of the Week

Oct. 10: Shak Adams, ASUN Player of the Week

Oct. 17: Arion Sobers-Assue, ASUN Player of the Week

RECORD NIGHTS
On Sept. 27 at Rutgers, Ruiz scored all three of his goals by the 9:02 mark, and is believed to have recorded the fastest hat trick – in terms of time from the start of the game – in D-I history. The junior scored at the 5:42, 8:24 and 9:02 marks. The previous record is believed to have been held by Indiana’s Steve Burks, who tallied three goals 11:41 into a contest with Indiana State on Oct. 6, 1973.

With 3:20 between the first and third goals, Ruiz is the 3rd-fastest player to score three-straight goals at any point of a game in D-I history. He is bettered only by Illinois-Chicago’s John Stone, who did it in 2:15 (28:58-31:13) in 1985, and Saint Joseph’s Kyle Patterson in 2:31 (28:02-30:33) in 2007.

In addition to Ruiz’s three goals, Sobers-Assue also scored at the 9:21 mark, giving the Eagles three goals as a team in a span of just 57 seconds. That is the 2nd-fastest in NCAA D-I history at any point of a game, behind only Syracuse’s 43-second span versus Fordham on Oct. 17, 1989.

The Eagles found a way back into that incredible, historical list again on Oct. 11 when FGCU scored three goals in a 3:47 span to erase a 1-0 deficit against USF. Those goals came at the 66:03, 66:59 and 69:50 marks, ranking as the 15th-fastest in D-I history for a three-goal span by the same team.

HAT TRICK PARTY
Ruiz is the first player in program history with two hat tricks, and it took just 10 days between them. The first men’s soccer season at FGCU was 2007, and it took until Oct. 31, 2010, for a Green and Blue member to record a hat trick when Scott Harrison finally did it versus North Florida. Nearly six years went by before another occurred, and that happened with Ruiz against UNCW on Sept. 17. It then took just three more days for the third hat trick in program history to occur as Sobers-Assue netted three opposite FAU on Sept. 20.

START ANOTHER STREAK
After jumping out to a 2-0 lead not even 15 minutes into its match last Tuesday, FGCU allowed North Florida to score three unanswered goals and leave the FGCU Soccer Complex with a 3-2 triumph. The loss stopped FGCU’s program record and longest active winning streak in the country at 10 in a row, and also broke a 29-game home regular-season conference unbeaten streak (26-0-3) against ASUN members dating back to 2008.

ANIMO, THOMAS
FGCU lost freshman central defender Thomas Delplace (Toulouse, France/Scientific Bac) for the year with a broken leg suffered just more than three minutes into the Eagles’ match at UCF on Sept. 14. Delplace cut across the box and legally challenged what would have been a quality Knights’ scoring chance, but his shin collided with the attacking UCF player’s leg.

In honor of their teammate, FGCU players have started to wear T-shirts in pre-game warmups with text that reads “Animo Thomas” – which translates to “Cheer Up, Thomas” in Spanish.

NEXT UP
FGCU heads to Lipscomb for an 8 p.m. Eastern (7 Central) kickoff on Saturday in an important match would could decide the 1 or 2 seed in the ASUN Tournament. The Bison have won three in a row heading into a Tuesday match at Evansville.

FGCU Career Records

	GOALS				POINTS
1	Albert Ruiz (14-16)	24		1	Albert Ruiz (14-16)	51
2	Cristian Raudales (08-11)	19		2	Cristian Raudales (08-11)	43
3	Felipe DeSousa (12-14)	18		3	Felipe DeSousa (12-14)	38
4	Henry Penagos (10-14)	13		4	Arion Sobers-Assue	32
5	Arion Sobers-Assue (14-16)	12		5	Josey Portillo (08-11)	31
	Scott Harrison (08-11)	12

FGCU Single-Season Records

	GOALS				POINTS
1	Albert Ruiz (2016)	16		1	Albert Ruiz (2016)	37
2	Arion Sobers-Assue (2016)	11		2	Arion Sobers-Assue (2016)	29
3	Albert Ruiz (2015)	7		3	Deion Jones (2010)	17
	Felipe DeSousa (2012)	7			Scott Harrison (2008)	17
	Cristian Raudales (2011)	7		5	Albert Ruiz (2015)	16
	Deion Jones (2010)	7

TICKET INFORMATION
Single-game tickets are available for all remaining home games. More information, including special discounts and group rates, can be accessed by visiting FGCUTickets.com. To purchase tickets, or for additional inquiries, call the FGCU Ticket Office at 239-590-7145 Monday-Friday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. or log on to FGCUTickets.com.

FOLLOW ALONG
For up-to-the minute information and a behind-the-scenes look at the FGCU men’s soccer program, follow on Twitter @FGCU_MSoccer, Instagram @FGCU_MSoccer, Facebook /FGCUMSoccer and YouTube /FGCUAthletics.

COACH BUTEHORN
FGCU is led by Bob Butehorn, who has coached six professional players and 54 ASUN All-Conference selections since FGCU started its program in 2007. In just five years of postseason eligibility, Butehorn has guided FGCU to three ASUN Tournament championships and NCAA Tournament appearances – in 2011, 2012 and 2014 – and has won an unprecedented six-straight ASUN regular-season championships. His teams have been ranked nationally on several occasions by multiple media outlets. Now in his 14th season as a head coach, Butehorn has a 126-93-26 (.566) overall record, 92-61-22 (.586) mark in his 10th season at FGCU and 51-18-6 (.716) record in ASUN contests.

SUPPORT THE CAUSE
FGCU Athletics sponsors events throughout the year to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics’ charities of choice. For more information, including how to make a contribution, please visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.