CEDAR CITY, Utah - With an exhibition match officially in the books, the 2017 Thunderbird soccer season has officially arrived and the team will look to keep things rolling this weekend as they kick off the regular season with matches against UC Riverside and Boise State.
Previously on Thunderbird Soccer
Last Friday the Thunderbirds kicked off 2017 with an exhibition match against the Utah State Aggies in Logan. Utah State used a big second half to win the match 4-0, but head coach Fred Thompson saw a lot of good things from his team in their first game of the season.
"The fun thing about being able to watch the game later is that it is never as good as you think, but it is never as bad as you think. We did a lot of really good things: defensively we are starting to get an idea of what we want to do and we connected passes better. We were probably our own worst enemy, but that's something we are going to work out of," Thompson said of the exhibition. "All of things that didn't go quite the way we wanted are easy fixes. We got a chance to run through almost everyone on the roster and answer some of the questions that we had. Overall, it served its purpose, we got the information we needed and now we move forward."
Scouting Report: UC Riverside Highlanders
Friday night's match will be the first bit of action for the Highlanders of UC Riverside after a 2016 season in which they finished with a 5-10-4 record overall. They finished eighth in the Big West Conference after winning just two conference matches and finishing 2-5-1 in Big West play. The team is returning two of their top goal scorers from last season, senior Hailey Maxwell and junior Quinley Quezada, both of whom scored two goals last season for the Highlanders.
Southern Utah holds a 1-8-1 all-time record against the Highlanders with their only win coming in 2013. The two teams met last season in a match that ended in a 1-1 draw. Payton Wells was the hero for the Thunderbirds in that one as she tied the game on a header with just under five minutes left to play.
Scouting Report: Boise State Broncos
The Broncos are coming off of a 2016 season in which they finished with a 6-11-4 overall record, but turned things around in conference play finishing with a 5-3-3 record in the Mountain West. The Broncos' top goal scorer from 2016 was sophomore Raimee Sherle. Sherle scored seven goals and had two assists as a freshman last season for Boise State.
The Thunderbirds hold a 0-3-1 all-time record against the Broncos. However, the two teams have not played each other since 2007 when they matched up in the Idaho Governor's Cup in Pocatello, Idaho. The Broncos will host Montana for their season opener Friday night before welcoming in the Thunderbirds.
Coach's Corner
On the upcoming opening weekend:
"Our goals won't change this weekend. We build with every game and we try to get better with every game as we head towards conference play. We always want to go out there and come back with good results, but we also want to put ourselves in a position to be in a good place at the end of the year."
On his first regular season game as head coach of the Thunderbirds:
"It's going to be nice to finally get started. I have a lot of confidence in our team and I think we are going to get better and stronger with every game. We have come a long way from the first day of preseason and now the idea is to be able to continue that. As a staff, our job now becomes keeping the athletes fresh. That's going to be a challenge for us with our schedule, but we have fantastic training and strength staffs who will keep them at their best."
Match Info
Friday's match against the Highlanders will not have a live stream but a link to live stats will be available at suutbirds.com. Kickoff is set for 8:30 p.m. Mountain time (7:30 p.m. Pacific).
The Thunderbirds will wrap up their first weekend of competition on Sunday in Boise. Kickoff is set for 1:00 p.m. Mountain time. The game will be broadcast live on the Mountain West Network. Links to the stream and live stats will be available at suutbirds.com.
Follow Us
Stay up to date during the 2017 Thunderbird Soccer season by following @SUUSoccer on Twitter and Instagram and liking the Southern Utah Soccer page on Facebook.
