This Week: Notre Dame College men's soccer will host West Virginia Wesleyan College, on Oct. 25, at 3 p.m. The Falcons go on the road for the last time in the regular season, on Oct. 29, to play Concord University at 3:30 p.m.
 
Records: NDC currently has a record of 10-2-3 (7-2-3 MEC), sitting in second place in the conference, with 24 points. W.Va. Wesleyan has an overall record of 8-5-2, with an MEC mark of 5-4-2. Concord is currently 7-2-6 (4-2-6 MEC). Concord is third in the conference standings with 18 points and WVWC is tied for fourth, with 17 points. Earlier this year, NDC defeated WVWC, 6-2, and played to a scoreless draw with Concord.
 
Coaches Corner: Carl Nolan is in his eighth season as head coach of the Notre Dame program and 19th as a member of the coaching staff. He has an overall coaching record of 89-34-14, while going 72-22-10 against MEC competition. Josh Spencer is now in his second season as the head coach of the W.Va. Wesleyan program. He has a coaching record of 15-13-6 (10-11-6 MEC). Alex Smith is in his first season at the helm of the Concord program.
 
Rankings: Notre Dame is receiving votes in the United Soccer Coaches (USC) NCAA Division II top 25 poll. NDC is sitting at No. 4 in the USC's Atlantic Region poll.
 
Series History: NDC has had success against both of these teams, since the MEC began a decade ago. The Falcons are 15-3-3 all-time against West Virginia Wesleyan and have not lost a game to the Bobcats since 2019. NDC is 18-0-2 against Concord since their first meeting in 2013. NDC has only allowed seven total goals in the 20 matchups.

Noting the Falcons: Notre Dame went 1-0-1 last week, tying Wheeling, 3-3, before defeating West Liberty, 2-1. Higor Xisto, Parker Bolin and Carlos Almeida scored in the second half against Wheeling to come back and play to a draw. Will Couch scored in the 15th minute to put NDC up 1-0 over WLU. Xisto broke the 1-1 tie with a PK in the 85th minute for the game-winner against West Liberty. Xisto also recorded an assist, to go along with his two goals last week while Bolin, Jared Rimmer and Ailton Fagner Silva were each credited with one assist. NDC outshot its opponents by a combined, 41-19, last week.
 
NDC is currently second in the conference with 38 goals and 31 assists. The Falcons' defense ranks fourth in the MEC with 15 goals allowed. Mirai Sato ranks second in the conference with nine goals, while Evans Armah still leads the MEC with seven assists. Sato also leads the league with three game-winners and ranks fourth with 19 points. Jared Rimmer has moved into a tie for fourth place in the conference with five assists and Higor Xisto is close behind with four. Ailton Silva is still at the top of the conference with 41 shots and 24 shots on goal. Danilo Abayo Wilson is at the top of the MEC with seven shutouts.
 
Nationally, the Falcons are still in the top ten in goals (38), points (107), shots on goal per game (8.2) and goal differential (plus-23). The Falcons are also 14th in Division II with 31 assists and 16th in scoring offense with 2.53 goals per game. Individually, Wilson ranks sixth with seven shutouts, and Armah ranks 17th in assists.

Noting the Bobcats: Last week, West Virginia Wesleyan beat Frostburg State, 5-1, but then fell on the road to Charleston, 4-0. Against FSU, Max Evans had a hat trick for WVWC, while John Hollis and Emre Sinasi Deniz had the other goals.
 
W.Va. Wesleyan has over seven wins in a season for the first time since 2019. This season, the Bobcats have gone 5-1-1 at home, but have a road record of 3-4-1.
 
Wesleyan ranks third in the MEC this year, with 33 goals scored and 21 assists. Emre Sinasi Deniz leads the conference, and ranks 16th in Division II, with 10 goals and he is second in the conference with 21 shots on goal. While also boasting three assists, Deniz leads the MEC with 23 points and his teammate, Max Evans has 16 points, after totaling seven goals and two assists. On the defensive side, W.Va. Wesleyan is allowing 1.2 goals per game.
 
Noting the Mountain Lions: Concord had a busy week. The Mountain Lions defeated West Liberty, 1-0, last Wednesday. On Sunday, CU traveled to Elkins, W.Va. to complete a suspended game from Sept. 10 and then played a full game in the same day. Concord held on to a 1-0 lead over the final 23 minutes to win the first match of the day. In the full game of the day, Concord and D&E tied at one. Elvis Gomez, Fabian Amhof and Ignacio Alvarez Maina had the Concord goals last week.
 
Prior to this year, the last time Concord had over five wins in a season was 2016. This season, the Mountain Lions have a record of 6-1-1 at home and 1-1-5 on the road.
 
Concord has been in the middle of the pack in the MEC with 20 goals and 19 assists. Tomas Kelly is second in the MEC with 37 shots taken and Fabian Amhof leads the Mountain Lions, and ranks sixth in the conference, with six goals. Andre Nicholson is tied for second in the MEC with six assists, while Amhof is closing in with five. Amhof (17) ranks fourth in total points in the MEC. Goalkeeper Keegan Grant has been impressive for Concord, as he leads the MEC with 4.93 saves per game, seven shutouts and 74 saves and is second in goals against average at .769.
 
Throughout Division II, Concord ranks 15th in goals against average, at 0.733. Keegan Grant ranks fifth in the country with an .872 save percentage, sixth with seven shutouts and eighth with 75 total saves.