BELTON, Texas- The Howard Payne University men's soccer team (5-9-2, 2-6-1) will finish its regular season with a contest against the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor Crusaders (11-2-2, 7-0-2) at the CRU Soccer Field on Saturday, October 31 at 7:30 PM.
HOW TO FOLLOW
LAST TIME OUT
Howard Payne lost to East Texas Baptist, 5-1, on Thursday evening at the Cornish Soccer Field. Freshman forward Connor Parker scored his fifth goal of the season in the second half.
SCOUTING REPORT
The Yellow Jackets lost the previous matchup against the Crusaders, by a score of 1-4, at the Citizens National Bank Soccer Field on September 24.
UMHB has scored 39 goals this season, while holding their opponents to just 10. Billy Yonce leads the Crusaders in both goals and points. Yonce has scored six goals and has 22 points this season. Grayson Bowler and Martin Valdes both lead UMHB in assists with three.
Hughston Taggart is the Crusaders' starting goalkeeper. Taggart has started all 15 games he's played and has made 47 saves, while conceding 10 goals.
AROUND THE ASC
Howard Payne is fifth in the ASC Conference standings, and the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor has won the regular season championship. Howard Payne is penciled in as the fifth seed of the ASC Conference Tournament and will be traveling for the quarterfinals match. After the games on Saturday, HPU will know their opponent and location of the match for Tuesday, November 3.
Senior midfielder Xzavier Saldana and freshman forward Connor Parker are among the league leaders in offensive categories.
Parker is fifth in shots (35), eighth in shots on goal (19) and one of many players with five goals scored. Saldana is fourth in average points per game (1.08), seventh in shots (29) and one of many players in the conference with two game winning goals.
Sophomore goalkeeper Adrian is tied for the lead with Enrique Cabello of McMurry in saves (85) and saves per game (6.07), fifth in goals against average (2.43) and is one of four goalkeepers to make two or more shutouts this season.
Up Next: The Howard Payne University men's soccer team will figure out their opponent and location for the quarterfinals of the American Southwest Conference Tournament after the final whistle of the games on Saturday.
