SCF Sports: FGCU Men's Soccer: Schedule Released

FGCU Men's Soccer: Schedule Released

With the FGCU volleyball team releasing their schedule first, I just found out that the FGCU men's soccer team released their schedule and this year is gonna be the toughest that I have ever came encounter in seeing.

FGCU is ranked No. 20 in the nation in men's soccer as of the end of last season going 14-4-3 overall with a 4-1-1 record in conference. After winning the conference championship and an automatic bid in the national tournament last season, they beat USF in the first round by penalty kicks before falling to UNC in double OT.

The Eagles did lose three players as seniors: goalkeeper Jack Blatchford III, defender Santiago "Santi" Ortiz and midfielder Justin Gavin. Blatchford was a graduate student from Bentley University.

With head coach Bob Butehorn parting ways after 10 seasons and now becoming head coach for USF, FGCU will be led by Jessie Cormier. Cormier enters his first season as head and his resume speaks loudly about him.

Prior to FGCU, Cormier was head coach for the University of Vermont for seven years.

Key returners for FGCU include senior forward Albert Ruiz. Ruiz was one of the best players not just for FGCU and the A-SUN Conference, but also in the nation. A native of Barcelona, Spain, Ruiz's resume with FGCU speaks for itself. Ruiz was a A-SUN Player of the Year, two-time A-SUN All-Tournament Team member, A-Sun All-Tournament Team MVP and two time A-SUN Conference First team member.

During last season, Ruiz extended further than that. His 22 goals were not only lead as the most for FGCU and the A-SUN, but in the nation too. As a result of his success, Ruiz was also named a NSCAA All-Southeast Region First Team memeber, NSCAA First Team All-American and one of three finalists for the MAC Hermann Trophy. Ruiz will be one of nine seniors playing their last season.

This year, FGCU will play teams I have never seen us face or that haven't faced in a long time or not at all: The University of Omaha, Air Force, VCU, Vermont, Central Connecticut State, Loyola Marymount and the University of Denver.

FGCU has faced VCU and Loyola Marymount in the past. They split the overall series with VCU (2010: W 2-1 (2OT) and 2012: L 1-2) and lost to LMU 1-2 last season, but they have never played Omaha, AF, Vermont, CCS, or Denver.

The first team FGCU will play to start the season off is against the University of Denver, who was also ranked as the No. 3 team in the nation. The Pioneers were 19-1-3 overall with a 4-0-1 record in the Summit League. They won their conference tournament and an automatic bid in the national tournament. Although even if they lost in the championship, they could still get an at-large bid for their RPI rank. The Pioneers received a first round bye and won against UNLV in the second round (3-0), won against No. 12 Washington in the round of 16 (2-1) and beat No. 5 Clemson in the quarterfinals (1-0) before falling to No. 2 Wake Forest in the semifinals (1-2).

FGCU will be meeting Air Force for the first time in program history. The Falcons last season went 14-7-1 with a 6-3-1 record in the Mountain West Conference (MWC). They made it to the conference championship game, but ultimately fall to UNLV and did not qualify for the national tournament.

The University of Omaha went 10-5-4 overall with 5-0-1 record in the Summit League. They made it to the conference semifinals before falling to eventual winner Denver.

Of all of the teams FGCU will face, Vermont will likely be an awkward home coming for Cormier since FGCU will face the Catamounts and Vermont is Cormier's alma mater. The Catamounts went 14-7-1 overall last season with a 4-3 record in the America East Conference. Although they lost in the conference tournament finals, they still qualified for the national tournament due to a high RPI rank. They beat Rider University 4-1 in the first round before falling to Virginia 2-1 in double overtime in the second round.

Central Connecticut State University would be more of the easiest non-conference team to face. Last season, the Blue Devils went 2-12-3 overall with a 1-5-1 record in the Northeast Conference. They did not qualify for the conference tournament or national tournament.

FGCU opens the first four games of their season on the road. They will start in Colorado from August 25-27 where they will play No. 3 Denver in Denver and Air Force in Colorado Springs before finishing their first road trip heading to Burlington, Vermont to take on Vermont and CCS in the Peter Baldwin Memorial Classic from September 1st- September 3rd.

FGCU will have their home opener against VCU on Sunday, September 10th. They will then have two more non-conference home games against Loyola Marymount and UCF before conference.

The first conference game for FGCU will be against JU on September 23rd before going to UNF on September 30th.

There will be four more non-conference while conference is going on: Omaha (October 3rd), FIU (October 10th), @USF (October 24th) and FAU (October 31st). After the home game against Omaha, FGCU will play Lipscomb on October 7th at and have two away games against Stetson on October 14th and Upstate on October 21st, before concluding conference with a game at home against NJIT, which would also be senior night for the nine seniors.

Aside from Ruiz, the other eight seniors that will be playing their last season are defender Elias Roubos, defender Nicolas "Nico" Samayoa, midfielder Jiro Barigga Toyama, midfielder Robert Ferrer, midfielder Dylan Sacramento, midfielder Miguel Jaime, defender Caleb George and midfielder Kamar Marriott.

Also redshirt freshman players, defender T.C. Anderson and goalkeeper Gustavo Vasconcelos will make their season debuts.

Defender Thomas Delplace will also be returning after suffering a broken leg that ended his season.

With Cormier make his season debut with FGCU, the Eagles will be dominant.

Below are some pics with some of the soccer players from last season: