DETROIT (9/18/2017) -- The University of Detroit Mercy men's soccer team continues its road swing Wednesday night, playing the first of three Big Ten matchups this season at Penn State University for a 7 p.m. match. The game is set to be streamed live on Big Ten Network Plus.
The Titans (4-1-1, 1-1 Horizon League) are coming off a 1-1 week after earning a 2-1 road win at Fort Wayne before falling 3-1 on Saturday at Green Bay. Detroit Mercy, ranked No. 9 in the United Soccer Coaches Great Lakes regional rankings last week, began the season with a five-match unbeaten streak, the longest since the 2002 season.
Detroit Mercy returns home this weekend, hosting league opponent Belmont at 1 p.m. on Saturday in the opener of a doubleheader with the Titan women's soccer squad from Titan Field. The first 100 fans at the Belmont contest will receive a free Detroit Mercy soccer scarf.
Titan News & Notes
• The Titans and Nittany Lions are meeting for the first time in men's soccer.
• Detroit Mercy is ranked No. 10 in the most recent Great Lakes regional rankings, released Tuesday.
• With a 3-0 home mark, Detroit Mercy has its best home start at Titan Field since the 2012 campaign.
• Senior goalkeeper
Robbie Beckwell went over 100 career saves vs. UIC, becoming the 11th player in school history with 100 or more saves.
• Senior forward
Spiro Pliakos set a new single-season career-high with five goals. He has three or more goals in all four seasons.
• Pliakos and senior forward
Tyler Moorman have scored nine of 11 goals for the Titans this season.
• Pliakos is tied for the league-lead with five goals and 11 points and ranks second in the conference in shots (25) and shots per game (4.17).
• Beckwell was named the HL Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 11 after turning away eight shots vs. UIC.
• Pliakos earned HL Offensive Player of the Week after the first week of the year. He also earned a spot on the College Soccer News National Team of the Week following the opening weekend. He had his third career brace in a 2-1 win over Stetson, including the OT game-winning goal.
• GK Robbie
Beckwell and defender
Garret Weaver have each played every single minute this year (565 minutes).
• The Titans have two victories over NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago -- LIU-Brooklyn and UIC.
• Head coach
Nicholas Deren '99 picked up win No. 50 in his Titan career in the season opener against Stetson.
• The Titans began the season with a five-game unbeaten streak, the longest to open a season since 2002.
Scouting Penn State
The Nittany Lions are 1-3-2 on the 2017 season and have dropped their last two matches against Ohio State, 3-0, on the road and No. 3-ranked Maryland, 2-0, at home. Penn State's lone win on the season came at home vs. Saint Francis, 1-0. PSU is 1-2-0 at home this season.
Sophomore Aaron Molloy leads the team with two goals and four points. Sophomore Christian Sload has one goal and leads the squad with 13 shots and seven shots on goal. Senior Evan Finney has started all six games in net for the Nittany Lions, posting 21 saves, a 72.4 save percentage and 1.20 goals against average.
Penn State went 8-8-2 overall a year ago in 2016, including a 4-4-0 record in Big Ten play. PSU's head coach is Bob Warming, who is a two-time National Coach of the Year and 2012 & 2013 Big Ten Coach of the Year. He's second among active NCAA Division I coaches entering 2017 with 456 wins.
Seniors Leading the Way
The Titans have seven seniors on the 2017 squad with many of them having a huge impact on the program this season. Five fifth-year seniors are on the squad in
Robbie Beckwell,
Adam Clauss,
Matt DeVries,
Tyler Moorman and
Spencer Steinwascher.
Tyler Hughes and
Spiro Pliakos are the other two seniors for the Titans.
Pliakos (five goals), Moorman (four goals) and Clauss (one goal) have accounted for nine of 11 goals in 2017. Pliakos has set a new-career high with five goals this season and leads the squad with 11 points. Moorman is second on the team with nine points (four goals, one assist). The pair have combined for four game-winning goals. DeVries (six starts) and Clauss (five starts) are mainstays at midfield for Detroit Mercy, while Hughes has started all six games in 2017 on defense. Steinwascher has played in the last two matches after missing the first four games of the season.
Beckwell has played every minute in net and has two shutouts on the season. Beckwell leads the Horizon League in saves with 29 and saves per game at 4.83. He has a 4-1-1 record in net. He ranks fifth in goals against average (1.28) and third in save percentage (78.4) in the conference.
Graduate transfer
Dalton Amez scored his first goal as a Titan in a 3-1 loss at Green Bay. It was his second collegiate goal. Amez transferred to the Titans from Northwood after playing in three seasons for the Timberwolves.
Titans Earn Spot in Regional Rankings for Fourth-Straight Week
The Titans have earned a spot in the United Soccer Coaches Great Lakes regional rankings for the fourth consecutive week of the 2017 campaign, securing the No. 10 spot after the poll was released Tuesday, Sept. 19. Detroit Mercy was No. 7 in the Great Lakes regional poll in the first week of the season and No. 9 in each of the past two weeks before nabbing the No. 10 spot this week.
It's the first time since the 2014 season that Detroit Mercy has been included in the regional rankings in four-straight weeks. The No. 7 ranking in the Great Lakes regional poll during the first week was also the highest for a Deren-coached squad in his eight full years at the helm of Detroit Mercy.
Quick Starts
Detroit Mercy has been quick to score in 2017, tallying three goals in the first 10 minutes of the match so far through six matches. Two of those goals have come off the foot of
Tyler Moorman, who scored just 106 seconds into the league-opening victory over UIC on Sept. 9.
Titans' quick goals:
• Moorman -- 1:46 vs. UIC (PK)
• Moorman -- 4:01 vs. LIU-Brooklyn (lone goal of game)
• Clauss -- 9:49 at Saint Mary's
Chasing Records
Spiro Pliakos, a three-time All-League player, is moving up the Titan record books in points, moving into 16th place all-time in points with 49. He is one point shy of Michael Giese (50 points) and Jason Massoglia (50 points) for 14th place and two points back of Chris Bologna (51 points) for 13th place. Pliakos has 16 goals and 17 assists in his standout Titan career. Pliakos is 18th all-time in goals and tied-for-12th in assists.
Tyler Moorman is also moving up the career goals list and has 14 career markers, which puts him in a tie-for-20th with Goran Cepo. With his seven game-winning goals, Pliakos is tied-for-fifth all-time with Vahid Assadpour and Goran Cepo. Moorman has five career game-winning goals.
Robbie Beckwell became the 11th goalkeeper in Titan history to record 100 career saves. He made his 100th stop in the second half of a 2-0 victory over UIC. He is 14 saves behind former Detroit Mercy GK Jim Grewe (123 career saves) for the 10th spot on the career saves list.
Horizon League Preseason Poll
Detroit Mercy was selected to finish sixth in the preseason poll, which was voted on by the league's head coaches. The Titans received one of the 10 first-place votes and earned 51 points overall. Oakland was voted to finish first, with the defending league champions, UIC, just one point behind in second.
Up Next
Detroit Mercy hosts Belmont on Saturday at 1 p.m. from Titan Field. The game is set to be streamed live on ESPN3.com and the WatchESPN Applications. The Titans then return to the road, playing three more on the road, beginning at Ohio State on Tuesday, Sept. 26.
