HEARTLAND CONFERENCE QUARTERFINALS
Eastern New Mexico at West Texas A&M
Nov. 1 at 7 p.m.
Live Stats / Video
GAME NOTES
CANYON, Texas. – The West Texas A&M men's soccer team will enter the Heartland Conference Tournament as three-seed and will host six-seed Eastern New Mexico in a quarterfinal match on Tuesday, Nov. 1, at 7 p.m. at The Pitch. The two teams will meet for the third time in 10 days for a spot in the semifinals to be played on Friday, Nov. 5, in Wichita Falls, Texas.
Links for live stats, video and tickets are available at GoBuffsGo.com under the men's soccer schedule page.
What is Next?...
The winner of Tuesday's matchup will play two-seed St. Edward's on Friday, Nov. 4, at 5 p.m. in Wichita Falls, Texas. The Heartland Championships match will take place on Sunday, Nov. 6, at 1 p.m.
About Eastern New Mexico…
Head coach Paul Tate has the Greyhounds playing well at the right time as they have only lost twice in their past ten matches after starting after the season 2-5-1. Eastern needed to win both of their matches last week to get into the tournament and did just that led by seniors Ryan McManus, Ryan Sinclair and junior James Gutierrez.
McManus scored twice in Eastern's 2-1 win over Lubbock Christian including the game-winner in the final five minutes. The senior from St. Andrews, Scotland leads the team in goals (3), points (8), shots (47) and shots on goal (22). Sinclair, scored the game-winner against WT, enters the tournament with two goals and two assists on 14 shots. Junior goalkeeper Gutierrez has made 81 saves this season on 240 shots faced for a .789 save percentage. The Albuquerque, N.M. native has four shutouts while allowing 20 goals for 1.25 goals allowed average in 2016.
The Series with Eastern New Mexico…
The Buffs and Greyhounds will face off for the 27
th time in school history. WT leads the all-time series 16-7-3 including a record of 10-2-3 in Canyon.
Last Time Around…
The Buffs allowed two goals in a match for just the second time this season in a 2-1 loss to the Greyhounds last Saturday at Al Whitehead Field at Greyhound Stadium. ENMU got on the board first at 53:09 when Omary Shabani got on the end of Ignacio Dunn's cross just inside the six yard box. WT wasted no time leveling the match at 1-1 when
Simon Sebbah got on the end of a cross at 56:44 from the left side from
Reece Schattle on a breakaway. Eastern scored the eventual game-winner at 68:09 on a free kick from Ryan Sinclair.
Heartland Conference Tournament…
The Mustangs of Midwestern State (15-2-1, 13-1 HC) were crowned Heartland Conference regular season champions and earned the right to host the tournament. MSU won their final 10 conference matches including a win over No. 2 seed St. Edward's last week in Austin. The Hilltoppers of SEU earned a bye into the semifinals defeating Dallas Baptist 1-0 on Saturday and will play the winner of WT and ENMU on Friday night. Roger's State and Newman will face off for the second time in four days in the 4/5 matchup in Wichita, Kan. The Hillcats defeated the Jets 1-0 in the season finale.
NUMBERS TO KNOW (Tournament Edition)
1…
The Buffs made the Heartland Conference tournament in their first year in the league.
5…
As of Oct. 27, WT ranked fifth in the nation in shots per game with 19.88. They also ranked 6
th in in shots on goal per game with 8.82.
8…
Patrick Satorie ranks eighth in the nation in goals against average (0.55).
10…
10 different Buffs have scored game-winners this season.
Reece Schattle,
Mirza Dizdarevic and
Simon Sebbah lead the team with two each.
11…
Patrick Satorie's 11 shutouts this season are a new school record breaking the previous record of nine set by Shane Taylor back in 2007.
13…
The Buffs won 13 matches for the first time since going 15-2-2 in 2009.
31…
The Buffs finished conference play with 31 points (10-3-1) and 13 points in divisional play (4-1-1).
38…
The Buffs finished the regular season with 38 goals, six more than last year.
493…
Butch Lauffer enters the Heartland tournament with 493 career wins (303 men/190 women).
