Upcoming in Gray Wolves Soccer: Lourdes returns to Wildcat Stadium on Saturday evening for the first time in 2020 as the Gray Wolves in their final tune-up for Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference play hosting Concordia (Mich.) in a non-conference tilt between the two league foes.

On the Air: Saturday's match against Concordia (Mich.) will be broadcast on a tape delay on BCSN as part of Buckeye Broadband.  The match will air Saturday night at 11:30 p.m. as well as several times next week.

Head Coach Matt Johnson: Matt Johnson took over as the second head coach in program's history prior to the 2019 season.  Johnson sports a 82-97-8 (.460) record overall in his 11th season as a men's collegiate soccer coach and has a 7-13 (.350) mark in his second year at Lourdes.

Series Notes: Concordia (Mich.) leads the all-time series against Lourdes 4-1 in a series that began Oct. 14, 2015.  The Cardinals have won the last four meetings between the two schools after posting a 2-1 victory at Wildcat Stadium on Oct. 30, 2019.  The Gray Wolves lone win game in the first meeting, a 3-0 triumph in Ann Arbor, Mich.  This will be the first non-conference meeting ever between the two sides.

Wrapping Up Last Week: Rio Grande scored midway through the first half and added an insurance tally 10 minutes into the second half on the way to a 2-0 victory over the Gray Wolves last Saturday in Rio Grande, Ohio.  Ali Chokr made two saves in goal for the Gray Wolves as the Red Storm outshot Lourdes 17-10 for the match.

Scouting Concordia (Mich.): The Cardinals will be playing their 2020 season opener against Lourdes after finishing 2019 with a 7-12 record overall and a 5-6 mark in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference.  Concordia is picked to finish seventh in the WHAC this year.  Steven Soboslay is the Cardinals' top returning scorer, having tallied six goals and 14 total points one year ago.  Boris Illic was tied for the team lead with three assists.  Concordia will have a new netminder in goal this season, as neither of last year's goalkeepers are on the 2020 roster.

Gray Wolves in Home Openers: Lourdes is 1-3-1 all-time in home openers and are winless in their first home game of the season since 2016, a 3-1 victory over Grace Bible.  The Gray Wolves dropped their first match at home in 2019 by a 3-2 score in overtime against Indiana East.

A Rare WHAC Foe in a Non-League Match: Lourdes will be facing a WHAC opponent in a non-conference match for the first time in program history.  The Gray Wolves and Cardinals will meet on Oct. 24 for a league contest.  The only previous time Lourdes played a WHAC school twice in the same year was in 2015, facing Marygrove in both the regular season and WHAC tournament.

A Victim of COVID-19: Lourdes has had a pair of matches cancelled this season due to COVID-19.  The scheduled season opener against Goshen was cancelled after test results from both schools were not back prior to the afternoon of the match.  Wednesday's contest slated at Indiana East was cancelled due to health concerns with the Red Wolves.

A Similar Lineup: Lourdes had a consistent lineup from its season opener to the second match of the season, with 10 of the 11 players remaining the same.  The only change at Rio Grande was inserting Cameron Poslaiko, who missed the season opener due to injury, in the place of Olawole Ogunsanya.

Chokr Inching Closer to School Marks: Ali Chokr ranks second in program history in minutes played in goal, saves, and shutouts.  He is also 200 minutes shy of qualifying for the career goals against average leaderboard.  Chokr enters the weekend with 140 career saves, 34 shy of Jose Cedillo's (2015-2017) mark of 174.  Chokr is also approximately 890 minutes shy of Cedillo's minutes played mark of 3192:12, and is two clean sheets behind Cedillo.  Chokr has five career shutouts while Cedillo finished with seven.
 
One of Nine: When fifth-year senior Brendon Long scored the match-winning goal against Point Park in the season opener, he became just the ninth Gray Wolf in program history to register more than one match-winning tally in their career.

Firing Shots: Farouk Amoo has come off the bench and led the Gray Wolves in shot attempts in each of the first two matches.  The fifth-year senior has eight total attempts this year after  leading the Gray Wolves in shot attempts in 2019 with 47 on the season.  For his career, Amoo ranks fifth all-time at Lourdes with 61 career shots, four shy of fourth place Akilla Arno's (2015-2017) total of 65.

Lots of Experience: Olawole Ogunsanya moved into second place alone in program history having appeared in 49 career matches after drawing a starting assignment in the season opener at Point Park.  He trails only Reece Riccardi (2016-2019), who appeared in 57 matches, on the Gray Wolves' all-time list.  Jose Silveira has moved into a tie for seventh all-time for the Gray Wolves, having stepped onto the pitch 39 times for Lourdes, matching Jose Cedillo's (2015-2017) mark.  Brendon Long ranks fifth all-time at Lourdes having made 36 career starts.  He is one starting assignment shy of matching Cedillo for fourth on the list.

A Different Look This Season: Due to COVID-19, four schools in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference have opted to not play soccer this fall, moving all of their matches to the spring.  The remaining eight league schools will play a split season, competing in five WHAC matches in the fall and six in the spring.  The WHAC tournament and NAIA National Championships will take place in the spring.

Team Captains: Lourdes has tri-captains for the 2020 season.  Serving in the Gray Wolves' leadership role are seniors Savio Adams and Jose Silveira along with junior Cameron Poslaiko.  All three are first time captains for Lourdes.

This and That: The Gray Wolves have never played a neutral site match in program history ... the Gray Wolves are scheduled to play three of their next four matches at Wildcat Stadium where they are 12-23-4 all-time.