The Matchup
- Loyola men's soccer continues their Patriot League regular season and postseason championship defense as they travel to face American
- This will be the 52nd matchup between the two programs. The teams last faced off during the 2021 Patriot League Tournament in the Championship game when the Greyhounds won 2-1.
Lockdown Defense
- The Greyhounds defense has picked up where they left off last season, as they have posted shutouts in 4 of their 8 games this season.
- Sophomore goalkeeper
Alex Bobocea was in net for all four shutouts this season.
- Loyola's defense was a major part of them reaching the NCAA tournament last season, as they tallied 11 shutouts on the year, the program's most in a season since 2008, and the Greyhounds allowed one goal or fewer in 15 of 20 contests during the 2021 season.
- Loyola is currently second in the Patriot League in opponent goals per game, as they are allowing .88 goals per game.
- Bobocea is also third in the Patriot League with a .777 goals allowed average.
Returners and Newcomers
- The Greyhounds will return 21 players from the 2021 team. Key returners include
Jordy Luchies who was the only player to start all 20 games, leading goalscorer
Kelan Swales,
Daniel Tshiani,
Matthew Lala,
Albert Kang, and
Jake Mayer.
- The Greyhounds have also brought in a deep and talented freshman class that includes 9 players in total.
- They also brought in two transfers in goalkeeper
Konstantinos Parisis who transferred to Loyola from Wilmington University. They also brought in transfer defender
Thomas Gray, who comes to Loyola from William Carey - - - University, also brought in
Richie Nichols, who transferred from Maryland, and lastly transfer defender
Milan Miric, who comes from Dayton.
Scouting American
- The Eagles come into the matchup with an 3-3-2 (1-1-0) record on the season.
- Their lone Patriot League win thus far came against Bucknell this past Saturday, as they won 2-1.
- Evan Schweickert, Robert Matei, and Zemi Rodriguez each have two goals on the season, and have accounted for 6 of the Eagles 7 goals this season.
- Mattias Cooper and Trol Elgersma are also tied for the team lead with 2 assists each.
- The Eagles have had three different goalies start this season, with Lorenzo Gordon having the most starts (5), with 15 saves and a 1.80 GAA. Dominic Dominguez has 8 saves in two starts, with a 1.56 GAA, and Mattew - - - - Tibbetts has 2 saves in two games played (one start), and a 0.92 GAA.
- American was picked to finish in 2nd place in the Preseason Poll
Quick Notes
- The Greyhounds are 38-9-4 in the Patriot League since the beginning of the 2016 season.
- The Greyhounds were 8-0-1 last season when scoring multiple goals. They are also 8-0 when leading at halftime and 8-2-1 when they outshot opponents since the beginning of last season.
- The Greyhounds have four shutouts on the season thus far.
- So far this season, the Greyhounds have outshot their opponents by a total of 102-76 this year.
- The Greyhounds are 6-3-1 in the last 10 games against the Eagles.
- In their All-Time series, the Greyhounds have outscored the Eagles 115-58.
- Following the wins over Delaware and Old Dominion, four Greyhounds were named Patriot League Players of the Week:
Kelan Swales (Offensive Player of the Week),
Albert Kang (Midfielder of the Week),
Jordy Luchies (Defensive Player of the Week), and
Alex Bobocea (Goalkeeper of the Week).
Matthew Lala also earned Defensive Player of the Week honors on September 26th.
- Of the 21 returners, 13 of them started in at least one game during the 2021 season, with 5 of them tallying at least 14 starts.
Swales and Luchies Earn Preseason Patriot League Awards
- Loyola's
Kelan Swales (Offensive Player of the Year) and
Jordy Luchies (Defensive Player of the Year) recieved Preseason Patriot League Awards. Along with Swales and Luchies,
Albert Kang also was named to the Preaseason All-Patriot League team.
- The Greyhounds lead the Patriot League with three nominees on the All-Patriot League team, as they also recieved all possible first place votes (18) to repeat as Patriot League Champions during the 2022 season.
-
Steve Nichols, whose staff includes assistants
Jamie Darvill,
Jesse Haislip and
Matt Little, was voted by his peers as the conference's Coach of the Year for a fourth time after he was previously recognized three-straight seasons from 2016-18.
More on Swales and Luchies
- The Leeds, England native, Swales is a two-time First Team All-Patriot League nominee. Swales has also been named to the United Soccer Coaches Second Team All-Atlantic Region, as well as the Academic All-Patriot League Team.
- Swales has tallied 8 goals and 8 assists in two seasons for the Greyhounds, including 3 game winning goals during the 2021 season.
- Swales comes into the 2022 season with the most points from any returners.
- The Emmen, Netherlands native, Luchies comes into his sophomore season after being named to the 2021 First Team All-Patriot League team.
- Luchies was an anchor on the back line for the Greyhounds and was a crucial part of the Greyhounds defense.
- Luchies also tallied 1 assist during the 2021 season, and was the lone Greyhound to start in all 20 games.
Last Time Out
- The Greyhounds hosted the Lehigh Mountain Hawks on Saturday afternoon.
- The Greyhounds offense was aggressive on Saturday, as they out-shot Lehigh 20-7 on the afternoon.
- Despite the high shot total, the Greyhounds still found themselves without a goal late in the second half.
- That all changed, as
Matthew Lala connected on a corner kick from
Kelan Swales, to take a 1-0 lead in the 79th minute.
- From there, the Greyhounds defense continued their strong play, as they won 1-0.
