Matchup: #11 FGCU (10-3-1, 2-1-0 ASUN) vs. USC Upstate (3-8-0, 1-3-0 ASUN)
When: Saturday, Oct. 22 | 7 PM | Fort Myers, Fla.
Links: Tickets | Video | Live Stats | Twitter
Coaches: Bob Butehorn (10th Season @ FGCU, 91-61-22; 14th Overall, 125-93-26) | Dr. Greg Hooks (22nd Season @ USC Upstate, 220-147-32; 29th Overall, 307-176-38)

FORT MYERS, Fla. – After its nation-best 10-game winning streak and nearly eight-year ASUN Conference home regular-season unbeaten run were snapped Tuesday night, the #11 FGCU men’s soccer team will look to bounce back on Senior Night against the team that ended its season a year ago when the Eagles host USC Upstate Saturday at 7 p.m.

KEY STORYLINES
FGCU continues to lead the nation in nearly every offensive category: goals (46, next closest: 37), points (128, next closest: 106), goals per game (3.29, next closest: 2.69) and points per game (9.14 next closest: 7.57). The point and goal totals are already single-season program records, far surpassing the previous marks of 35 and 108, respectively.

USC Upstate – which earlier last season tragically lost two team members in a single-car accident – upset top-seeded FGCU at home in the ASUN Tournament semifinals last year, 4-3. Entering that match, FGCU had shut out Upstate each of the previous seven meetings as the Eagles hadn’t allowed the Spartans to score since the 2008 season. The loss to Upstate was the first in series history as FGCU owns an all-time mark of 8-1-1 versus the Spartans.

After jumping out to a 2-0 lead not even 15 minutes into its match 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.

SENIOR NIGHT
Prior to the game, FGCU will honor the following seniors as the contest represents the final regular-season home match of the year for the Eagles: Jack Blatchford III (Douglas, Mass./Bentley/Douglas HS), Justin Gavin (Brooklyn, N.Y./Eastern Florida State College/Treasure Coast HS) and Santiago Ortiz (Cali, Colombia/Montverde Academy). Dylan Sacramento (Winnipeg, Manitoba/York University/Bill Crothers S.S.) is academically a senior as well, but after transferring from York University in Canada following an abbreviated sophomore season is applying for a fifth year (fourth full season of athletic eligibility) and thus will not be honored as he could return to the team next year.

Blatchford III is a goalkeeper and graduate student who transferred to FGCU this past summer after graduating from Bentley but has not appeared in any matches for the Eagles. Gavin also transferred to FGCU, but following his sophomore season at Eastern Florida State College. He has scored one goal in his nearly two years with the Eagles, and issued six assists – including four this year, which is tied for 3rd on the team. Ortiz is a four-year letterwinner at defense and has appeared in 25 games, including a career-high 11 this year. Earlier this season, he scored his first career goal (and posted his first career points) with a free-kick conversion versus FAU.

ASUN STANDINGS

Team	Pts.	Rcd.
North Florida	9	3-0-0
NJIT	9	3-1-0
FGCU	6	2-1-0
Lipscomb	6	2-2-0
Jacksonville	3	1-3-0
Stetson	3	1-3-0
USC Upstate	3	1-3-0

FGCU still has three ASUN matches remaining. In addition to Saturday against USC Upstate, the Eagles will travel to face Jacksonville on Tuesday, Oct. 25 (postponed from Oct. 8 because of Hurricane Matthew) and next Saturday at Lipscomb.

SCOUTING THE SPARTANS
FGCU and USC Upstate only have two common opponents this year, and both have come in ASUN play as the Spartans lost to both Stetson, 2-1, and NJIT, 1-0, while the Eagles defeated both teams, 6-0 and 4-1, respectively.

Joel Bunting leads Upstate with nine points on a team-best four goals and one assist. Rinaldi Alphonse ranks 2nd on the Spartans with six points off a pair of goals and assists. In net, Santiago Restrepo and Davis Smith have split time, with Restrepo playing in one more game. Restrepo has a 1.84 goals against average, while Smith has a 1.99. Upstate ranks last in the ASUN with a cumulative 1.91 goals against average.

ASUN DOMINANCE
Despite the loss to UNF on Tuesday, the Eagles still own a dominant 38-5-4 record in all ASUN regular-season games since the start of the 2010 season. Out of a possible 141 points that could have been earned in that time, the Green and Blue have claimed an impressive 118 of them (83.7 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 Division-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
Junior Albert Ruiz (Barcelona, Spain/ CE L’Hospitalet/UE Cornella) ranks 2nd in the nation with 14 goals, one behind Marist’s Cameron Harr, who scored four goals in 4 minutes and 20 seconds Wednesday night. Ruiz’s 1.08 goals-per-game average and 2.54 points-per-game average are both the best in the country.

Both the goal and point totals (33) are already single-season program records as the previous highs were 17 and seven, respectively. Additionally, Ruiz has continued to build upon his career program record for points with 51 (previous: 43, Cristian Raudales) and goals with 22 (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) 10 goals, Ruiz has seven more goals than anyone else in the ASUN this year. Additionally, his 33 points are 16 more than any other player in the league, again with the exception being Sobers-Assue’s 25.

NATIONAL RANKING
FGCU’s #11 national ranking is the highest for any FGCU program in the D-I era (2007-08). It’s the fourth-straight week the Eagles have been ranked in the NSCAA top 15. Three 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 week 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 has secured five-straight ASUN Player of the Week honors in men’s soccer as FGCU collected its fifth in a row on 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 the win over Stetson last Friday.

It continues 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 NCAA 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 last Tuesday night 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.

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 Jacksonville to face the Dolphins on Tuesday, Oct. 25, to make up its postponed match from Oct. 8 due to Hurricane Matthew.

FGCU Career Records

	GOALS				POINTS
1	Albert Ruiz (14-16)	22		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	Josey Portillo (08-11)	31
5	Scott Harrison (08-11)	12		5	Scott Harrison (08-11)	30
					Francesco DiStefano (08-11)	30

FGCU Single-Season Records

	GOALS				POINTS
1	Albert Ruiz (2016)	14		1	Albert Ruiz (2016)	33
2	Arion Sobers-Assue (2016)	10		2	Arion Sobers-Assue (2016)	25
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 125-93-26 (.566) overall record, 91-61-22 (.586) mark in his 10th season at FGCU and 50-18-6 (.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.