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Men’s Soccer Plays Final Two Home Games This Weekend

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SALT LAKE CITY – The Westminster College men's soccer team will play at home for the final two times of the season this weekend.  Westminster will face Bellevue on Friday at 4 p.m. before taking on Marymount at 1 p.m. on Sunday on Senior Day.  Both games will be played at Dumke Field.

Griffin Notebook
Westminster will look to snap a three-match winless streak on Friday.  The Griffins are 4-5-1 overall this season and have gone 2-1-1 in the Unaffiliated Frontier Conference.  They were 0-2-1 during last week's three games and have just one win in the previous six games played.

Westminster sits fourth in the conference in scoring at 1.40 goals per game.  Their 14 total goals rank second in the league and their 13.3 shots per game are also second.  Defensively, the Griffins allow 1.7 goals per contest with the opposition attempting 12.9 shots per game.

Dennis Sellis leads the team with 15 points behind seven goals and one assist.  Sellis has attempted a team-best 45 shots while also putting 21 of those shots on frame.  Gabe Gonzalez has scored two goals and Ryan Beck has totaled four points thanks to one goal and two assists.

Damir Sabanovic has played 531 minutes in the Griffin net and made 31 saves with a 1.36 GAA.  Sabanovic has a .795 save percentage and has collected three wins.  Nathan Young has picked up one win and recorded 14 saves while KC John made four saves in a tie in his only action of the year.

Game Coverage
Griffins TV will broadcast the games on Friday versus Bellevue and Sunday against Marymount.  Griffins TV is available at WestminsterGriffins.com or Livestream.com/griffins.  Live stats will be available for both games during the weekend as well.  The live stat feed will be available at WestminsterGriffins.com and can also be accessed from your mobile device.

Promotions
Friday is Fan Appreciation Day and all fans will receive $1 tickets.  Everyone is encouraged to wear purple and stick around after the game for an autograph session.  Sunday is a White Out for Senior Day.  Anybody wearing white will receive 2-for-1 admission and the five Griffin seniors will be honored prior to the game.

Friday's Opponent: Bellevue
Bellevue comes to town at 0-8 overall this season after going 13-6-1 last season.  The Bruins are coming off losses to Benedictine, 3-2, and Jamestown, 2-1, last week.  They average 0.75 goals per game and have been outscored 31-6 this season.

Graeme Eaglesham leads the team in scoring with four goals.  Rob Jackson and Ryan Beasley have scored the other two goals for the Bruins this season.  David Lastra and Jacob Cawsey have the only assists of the year for the team.  Luke Baxter has made seven appearances in goal with a 3.73 GAA.   He has 32 saves and a .571 save percentage.

Saturday's Opponent: Marymount
Marymount makes the trip to Salt Lake City with a 2-6 overall record and 1-0 in the Unaffiliated Frontier.  The Mariners have lost three straight and are coming off a 1-0 loss against Point Loma Nazarene on Friday.  The team averages 1.13 goals per game while allowing the opposition to score 2.50 goals per outing.

Scott Smith leads the team with 10 points behind four goals and two assists.  Smith ranks second on the team behind Viktor Ahlgren with 12 shots on goal.  Ahlgren has 13 shots on goal with two goals and one assist.  Marcos Topolos has posted 47 saves with a .701 save percentage in the Mariner goal.

Inside the Series
Westminster and Bellevue will be meeting for the fourth time in the past three seasons on Friday. Bellevue has never lost to the Griffins in six all-time meetings and they picked up a 2-1 win at last year's Unaffiliated Conference Tournament.  This will be the third all-time meeting in SLC with the last coming in 2009.

Sunday's game against Marymount will be the first-ever meeting between the two programs.  Marymount is only the second team on the schedule that the Griffins had never faced entering the season.  The first was McPherson College whom Westminster defeated 3-2 on Sept. 3.

Continuing Where He Left Off
Westminster senior forward Dennis Sellis ha started this season exactly where he left off after last season's injury.  Sellis has scored seven goals in the first 10 games, including one game-winner.  He has fired 45 shots and put 21 on frame in 916 minutes played.  He also recorded the game-winning assist against La Sierra.

Sellis leads the Unaffiliated Frontier Conference in goals and points while ranking second in goals per game and points per game.  He also ranks third in shots per game and second in shots on goal per game.  His seven goals rank 21st in the NAIA while he is 33rd nationally in both total points and shots per game.

Instant Offense
Gabe Gonzalez is second on the team with two goals this season.  The junior midfielder has scored both of those goals in just 468 minutes of action while coming off the bench in nine of the 10 games.  Gonzalez is also second on the team with six shots on goal and his .857 shot on goal percentage leads all Griffins with at least three shots.  He scored the game-winning goal against La Sierra while playing just 57 minutes.

Ironmen
Five Griffins have at least 800 minutes of playing time through the first 10 games of the season.  Bryan Rucklos leads all Griffins with 948 minutes played while starting all 10 games.  Jason Tanner has played 932 minutes during the first 10 games while Sellis has played 916 minutes.  Adam Bullough at 898 and Ryan Beck at 886 are the others to surpass the 800 minute plateau.  Rucklos, Tanner and Bullough have all started every game at defender for the Griffins.  Sellis is a forward while Beck plays midfield.

Dumke Advantage
The Griffins have posted a 40-15-4 all-time record on the fast surface of Dumke Field.  Since 2008, Westminster is 21-7-3 at home and this is this first time since 2006 that the team has dropped three home game sin one season.  The current three-game winless streak is the longest such streak since Dumke Field opened in 2005 and the recent two-game home losing streak is only the third time that has ever happened.

Massey Ratings
Westminster dropped nine spots to No. 64 in the latest edition of the Massey Ratings that were released on Sunday.  The Griffins have a rating of .203 and have played the 30th-toughest schedule.  They are rated as the second-best team from the Unaffiliated Frontier, trailing just Great Falls at No. 20.

The Massey Ratings are compiled each week with new ranking being released on Sundays.  Kenneth Massey is the creator of the rating formula and all ratings can be found on his web site at www.masseyratings.com.

Among the Best
Westminster head coach Chris Dorich enters his 28th season at the helm of the program.  He has totaled 250 wins in his career and ranks 26th in NAIA history in that category.  Dorich also ranks 11th in career victories among active NAIA coaches.

The New Griffins TV
Westminster, along with the Victory Sports Network, have created a channel on Livestream to become the new online streaming home of the Westminster Griffins. The new Griffins TV channel can be found at WestminsterGriffins.com or at Livestream.com/griffins and will stream five men's soccer home games this fall.

Unaffiliated Frontier Conference
The NAIA approved the creation of a second Unaffiliated Conference that included the teams of the Frontier Conference and four teams from the Association of Independent Institutions.  The new conference will feature: Embry-Riddle (Ariz.), Great Falls (Mont.), Jamestown College (N.D.), Marymount University (Calif.), Rocky Mountain (Mont.), Soka University (Calif.) and Westminster.

The conference tournament will be held at Dumke Field in November.  The top four ranked teams will qualify for the tournament with two semi-final games on November 11 and the championship on November 12.
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