ARCATA, Calif. – After splitting a weekend road trip against a pair of nationally-ranked opponents, the Humboldt State men's soccer team takes the pitch again this Friday as they host Cal State San Bernardino at College Creek Field before facing Cal Poly Pomona on Sunday. Friday's match is scheduled for a 3 p.m. kickoff.
Last weekend, the Lumberjacks started with a 1-0 shutout against Cal State San Marcos before running out of steam and dropping the next match 3-1 to No. 9 UC San Diego. The North Coast squad is 4-4-2 overall and sits in the middle of the table with a 1-3-2 conference record. Junior forward Gus Baxter leads the Jacks with five goals, three assists and 14 shots on goal.
"This time of the season you see teams start to separate themselves," said Head Coach Fred Jungemann. "You start to see who is pushing towards the top of the table, who is at the bottom and you get a better feel for where teams are filling out in the conference. We are kind of in the middle, bottom third range right now and we need some wins if we are going to move up. If we want to get into the top six we need to finish strong in these last six conference games. We have some games at home which will hopefully help us but every game counts and we need four or five of them to be in the mix for the conference tournament."
Fresh off a 3-2 victory versus Stanislaus State, Cal State San Bernardino (6-3-0) will look to continue that success on their trip North to Humboldt County. Senior midfielder Danny Ortiz is the conference's top scorer, and he leads the Coyotes offense with five goals and eight assists. With only nine games played San Bernardino still boasts the CCAA's top offense with 21 goals scored and only nine surrendered.
Cal Poly Pomona (5-4-0) enters the weekend on a three-game winning streak following home victories over Stanislaus State and Chico State. Junior midfielder Jimmie Villalobos is the most efficient goal scorer in the conference averaging .750 goals per game. In eight games played, Villalobos has six goals, 32 shots and three game-winners.
HSU traveled to San Bernardino last season and dropped the match 3-1. The Jacks hold a 3-10 program record when facing off against the Coyotes.
Cal Poly Pomona shut out HSU 3-0 in last season's meeting. HSU has a 3-11 record when playing the Broncos.
