Men's Soccer Gameday Preview: Falcons host Evangel this evening
The Lowdown: Evangel University at Friends University
Location: Adair-Austin Stadium
Kickoff: Oct. 22 @ 5:00 PM
Live Stream: https://urbanedgenetwork.net/watch/2853
Live Stats: https://friendsathletics.com/sidearmstats/msoc/summary
Flying with the Men's Soccer Falcons (4-9-1, 4-4-1, KCAC)
The Falcons are coming off of three straight wins with a goal differential of +16. In those three games the Falcons defense has only allowed 1 goal. The attack has picked up for the Falcons with recording 66 shots.
Sora Shibata leads the Falcons with 11 goals on the season and he has had 6 goals in the past 3 games played. Jose Quiel leads the Falcons in assists with 5. The Falcons offense averages 2.43 goals a game against their opponent so far this year, with 16.1 shots a game.
Arturo Pombo-Palomero has made 32 stops with a 1.90 GAA during his 854 minutes at goalkeeper, while Juan Jose Echeverry has played 271 minutes in the net with 14 saves and a 2.65 goals-against-average for the Falcons.
About the Valors (6-4-3, 2-4-3 KCAC)
The Valors leading goalscorers on the season are Hayes Van Breusegen and Caleb Kuchta both having 5 goals. The Valors have a balanced scoring attack with three other players having 3+goals on the season. Evangel suffered a 2-1 defeat to Sterling in their last outing. The last 4 games for Evangel have been forgettable being 0-3-1 and only putting up 2 goals.
Evangel's primary goalkeeper is Davide Marzoli, has played in 13 games this season and notched 1109 minutes with 59 saves. He has an average of 0.97 GAA with 5 shutouts this season.
The Series: The Falcons beat the Valors 2-1 in last year's contest. The Falcons have only played the Valors twice in their recent history, the other time these two met was in 2023 where they tied 0-0.
The Coaches:
Bryan Perez is in his fifth season as head coach of the Friends University men's soccer program.
Last year, Perez coached three All-KCAC players and led the Falcons to a 6-4-3 record in the KCAC.
During the 2023 campaign, Perez guided the Falcons to a 9-6-5 overall record and a 7-2-4 mark in the KCAC. The Falcons advanced to the KCAC postseason tournament semifinal round and had top-seeded Oklahoma Wesleyan University on the ropes, but OKWU tied the score with 16 seconds left in regulation and pulled out a 3-2 win in double-overtime.
In 2022, the Falcons finished fifth in the league after coming in as the third seed in Perez's debut season as head coach.
In his first season in 2021, Perez helped the Falcons to a 12-4-1 overall record, including winning 12 of their final 15 matches.
In his first season with the program as an assistant coach, Perez helped the Falcons capture the KCAC tournament championship and achieve the program's first NAIA National Tournament berth since the 2007 season.
Perez was recently named the head coach of FC Wichita, a local men's soccer amateur team that is a member of the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL). He also functions as the Technical Director for the program.
Prior to taking his position at FC Wichita, Perez served as the Director of Coaching for Alliance FC in Kansas City, where he led the coaches and developed the soccer curriculum.
His professional playing career includes competing for six years for the Kansas City Comets, an indoor soccer team in the Major Arena Soccer League. He led the Comets to a pair of championships, including an undefeated season in 2015.
He was also called to play for the United States Men's National Futsal team for their 2012 and 2016 World Cup Qualifying teams.
Perez played collegiately at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and enjoyed a standout career that resulted in him being inducted into the school's athletic Hall of Fame in 2017.
He wrapped up his playing career at UMKC as the team's all-time leader in goals (29), points (70) and games played (78).
Perez was a four-time All-Summit league performer, including earning first-team honors on three occasions.
He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from UMKC in 2010 and currently resides in Wichita with his wife Jamie and two children, Mila (seven) and Enzo (four).
Kyle Beard is the Evangel Men's Soccer head coach and has been for four years. Beard gave the Valors soccer team their first winning season in program history, also gave them their winningest season with 8 wins last year.
Kyle was at Texas A&M University-San Antonio before he went to Evangel. However, he coached at three different institutions before joining the Valors. Beard spent eight seasons at Faulkner, transforming their program to a winning culture in a very tough conference. He gave Faulkner four consecutive trips to the postseason and coached over a dozen players to be on All-Southern States Athletic Conference teams.
Kyle is from Tyler, Texas and earned his bachelor's degree in 2000 from Lubbock Christian. He continued to learn by studying conflict resolution, strategic management, and leadership.
Up Next: The Falcons will stay in Wichita this Saturday to take on Tabor at Adair-Austin Stadium. Kickoff will be at 7:00 PM.
Men's Soccer Falcons by the Numbers:
Overall: 4-9-1
KCAC: 4-4-1
Home: 2-4-1
Away: 2-5
Scoring zero goals: 0-3
Scoring one goal: 3-6-1
Scoring two goals: 4-3
Scoring three goals: 4-0
Scoring 4+ goals: 4-0
Allowing zero goals: 3-0
Allowing one goal: 2-9-1
Allowing two goals: 0-8
Allowing three goals: 0-5
Allowing 4+ goals: 0-2
Leading at halftime: 4-0
Trailing at halftime: 0-6
Tied at halftime: 0-2-1
Leading in shots-on-goal: 4-3
Trailing in shots-on-goal: 0-6-1
Shots-on-goal are even: 0-1
