Live Stats | SRU-Ashland Audio | SRU-Tiffin Audio
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men's soccer team will open the season in a different way this fall as it plays host to a four-team tournament this Labor Day weekend. Ashland, Mercyhurst and Tiffin will travel to SRU for the tournament, which will feature two games Friday evening and two games Sunday afternoon.
Tiffin and Mercyhurst will open the tournament Friday with a 5 p.m. game. Slippery Rock and Ashland will square off at 7:30 p.m. Ashland and Mercyhurst will play Sunday at noon, followed by Slippery Rock and Tiffin at 2:30 p.m.
Live statistics will be available for all four matches via the link above. A live Internet audio broadcast will also be available for the two Slippery Rock matches.
A brief preview of the Slippery Rock games is available below.
Live Coverage: Live statistics and a live audio Internet broadcast will be available for both games at the links above.
Rankings: The only Division II rankings that have been released this season are the preseason rankings. None of the four teams received votes in the preseason rankings.
Head Coaches: Michael Bonelli is in his third season at the helm of the Slippery Rock program. Bonelli has posted a record of 18-15-3 in his first two seasons, including an 11-7-1 mark and a berth in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference playoffs in 2010. Prior to his time at SRU, Bonelli spent five seasons as an assistant coach at the Division I level, with stints at Northwestern and Lafayette. He received a bachelor's degree in physical education from SUNY Cortland in 2004.
Jon Freeman is in his third season as the head coach at Ashland. Freeman's best year at Ashland was his first season, 2010, when he took the team to a No. 12 national ranking, won the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title and finished the year 13-5-3. He earned his bachelor's degree from Wooster in 2000.
Rudy Brownell is in his sixth season as the head coach at Tiffin, where he has posted a career record of 59-27-7. Brownell has guided Tiffin to three of the last four GLIAC men's soccer tournament titles. He also served as the Tiffin women's soccer coach for seven seasons, posting a record of 84-39-16. Brownell earned his bachelor's degree in business administration from Tiffin in 1996.
Series History: Slippery Rock and Ashland have met eight times in the series, with the Eagles holding a 7-1 advantage. This marks the second season that the two teams will open the year against each other. Last year at Ashland, the Eagles earned a 1-0 win.
Slippery Rock and Tiffin will face each other for just the second time in the history of the two programs, with the only other game coming in 1985, when the Dragons earned a 3-0 victory in Tiffin.
Scouting The Rock: SRU will enter the 2012 season looking to improve on an uncharacteristic 7-8-2 overall record from last fall, when the team failed to reach the PSAC playoffs. The team is optimistic entering the fall after a stellar spring season that included a win on the road at NCAA Division I West Virginia University.
The team will welcome back 13 players from the 2011 roster, including starters
Chris Davis,
Stephen Donnelly,
Zach Hall and
Brandon Chiu, along with seniors
Drew Donoghue,
Blake McChesney,
Michael Ramirez and
Clayton Master. Davis finished third on the team in scoring last season with two goals and three assists despite missing most of the season with an injury. Donnelly and Hall each tallied two goals and handed out two assists and Chiu added two assists while starting every game in the midfield. Ramirez suffered an injury last season and played in just two games, but will be looking to return to the form that saw him notch three goals as a sophomore.
McChesney and Donoghue return as the top defenders from last season, with each seeing significant minutes and recording at least one point. Master started 11 games in goal last season and posted a 4-4-2 record. He allowed 15 goals for a 1.37 goals against average and recorded 44 saves for a .746 save percentage.
The team welcomes 11 true freshmen and five transfer students. The transfer students include juniors
Mike Roopchandsingh from Herkimer Community College,
Dylan Bogdan from the University of Charleston,
Joe Agerskow and
Joshua Gray from Genesee Community College and sophomore
Anthony Jack from Nova Southeastern University.
Scouting the Eagles: Ashland posted a 6-9-3 overall record last season and returns just four players that scored at least one goal last season. Leading the way is defender Jamie Dollar, who earned All-GLIAC honors last season after tallying four goals to finish second on the team in scoring. Danny Lusheck scored two goals and Andrew Over and Zaan Janse each tallied one goal to cap the returning goal scorers.
The Eagles return both goalkeepers that saw time last season, including Justin Nolan who made 15 starts and Kurt Innes who made three starts and played in six games. Nolan posted a 4-8-3 overall record, allowed 19 goals for a 1.31 goals against average and made 58 saves for a .753 save percentage. Innes was 2-1, allowed eight goals for a 1.88 goals against average and made 18 saves for a .692 save percentage.
The Ashland roster features 18 players with college experience and eight freshmen.
Scouting the Dragons: Tiffin is coming off a 10-5-4 season that saw the Dragons with the GLIAC tournament title for the third time in four years. The Dragons will be missing their top three scorers from a season ago and will be led by the fourth leading scorer from last season, Edison Benda, who scored one goal and handed out five assists. Also returning is Emmanuel Adjei, who scored two goals and handed out one assist.
Tiffin returns starting goalkeeper Jeremy Ashley, who appeared in 19 games as a freshman last season. He posted a 10-5-4 record with seven shutouts, allowed 18 goals for a goals against average of 0.92 and recorded 127 saves for a save percentage of .876.
The Dragons roster features 16 players with college experience and 12 freshmen.
Last Meetings: (
Ashland Box Score) Ashland, then ranked No. 20 in Division II, handed Slippery Rock a 1-0 defeat to open the season last year. The lone goal of the game came from Jamie Dollar in the 76th minute.
Ashland posted advantages of 13-6 in total shots, 5-1 in shots on goal and 7-6 in corner kicks.
Clayton Master took the loss in goal for SRU, allowing one goal and recording two saves. The team's defenders were also credited with two saves. Justin Nolan earned shutout for Ashland, recording one save.
The game saw a total of seven yellow cards, including six in the second half. Four of those cards went to Ashland players, with three to SRU players.
The last time Slippery Rock and Tiffin met was in 1985 at Tiffin, where the Dragons earned a 3-0 win over Slippery Rock.
