Oregon Tech Men’s Soccer Preview, Hustlin’ Owls Picked 8th in CCC Coaches’ Poll
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – Coming off a sixth place finish and an 8-8-1 record in 2017 and making the Cascade Conference playoffs for the second year in a row, seventh year Head Coach Matt Munhall is looking for his Hustlin' Owls to take the next step.
Oregon Tech has been picked to finish in eighth in the CCC Pre-Season Coaches' Poll. Rocky Mountain received twelve first place votes and a total of 194 points. The Battlin' Bears finished last year at 16-1-2 overall, 11-1-1 in conference play, sharing the regular season title with Southern Oregon University a year ago.
"Returning such an experienced group of seniors, having 40 years of collective collegiate playing experience, we have our aim to take another step for the program," said Coach Munhall. "We have made the CCC tournament the last two seasons, as the 8th and 5th seed, and we have not won a game there yet. Our goal is to position ourselves over the course of the season to be a top rated team again, while looking to find success in post-season play."
The Owls return 8 of 11 starters from a year ago including their top six scorers led by Trinidad Flores, Lodewijk Bloemzaad, Kelly Kyllo and two-time All-CCC 2nd Team selection Brennan Gazdik. "We have a great group of leaders guiding us on the field," added Munhall. "There is no question what the team wants to achieve. It will be a tough road, as it always is, but we are excited to get after it."
The Owls will look for good things from newcomers, Jack Warner (Clackamas HS -Happy Valley, Oregon), Kyle Sanchez (Post Falls HS - Post Falls, Idaho), Cade Roske(North Idaho CC - Pocatello, Idaho) and local product Josh Ledgerwood (Henley HS – Klamath Falls, Oregon)
The Owls open-up at home with scrimmages against Rogue CC and College of the Redwoods on August 18. They then play five games in California starting at Humboldt in Arcata on August 23 with stops at Chico State (Aug. 25), The Masters (Aug. 31) Hope International (Sept. 1) and UC Merced (Sept. 3) before hosting Sierra Nevada College on September 8 at 1:20 pm. College of Idaho and Rocky Mountain will come to town to open up Cascade Conference play September 14 and 15 respectively with both games scheduled for a 1:30 pm start.
2018 CCC Men's Soccer Coaches' Preseason Poll
The NAIA men's soccer preseason poll will be released August 14th.