LAREDO, Texas -- The Texas A&M International men's soccer team is ready to stomp the accelerator on 2013 from the word "Go," which will come on Saturday in Fort Worth.
The Dustdevils will begin a dangerous road, facing No. 24 Drury as the home team at a neutral site – Texas Wesleyan University. The non-Heartland Conference game will test TAMIU against a team that was nationally ranked as high as No. 5 last season before they qualified for the national championship tournament.
This year's TAMIU team has won the Heartland Conference twice in the past three years, but were selected to finish second in the conference in the preseason poll, voted on by conference head coaches and sports information directors.
TAMIU is ready to reclaim its conference sovereignty that St. Edward's edged away in 2012.
St. Edward's (7-1-2) finished just a game ahead of the Dustdevils (6-1-3), with the teams drawing in both their head-to-head matchups. If either one of those results had gone TAMIU's way, the Dustdevils would have been crowned with three consecutive conference titles.
The 2013 conference preseason poll identically reflects last season's final table, with St. Edward's and TAMIU finishing No. 1 and No. 2. The Hilltoppers earned all but one of the voter's first place votes – with the other oddly going to the University of Texas of the Permian Basin, the predicted fifth-place finisher.
The Dustdevils, back-to-back Heartland champions in 2010 and 2011, were selected to finish behind last year's conference champion St. Edward's. TAMIU finished 6-1-3 in the Heartland Conference with six All-Heartland Conference honorees and two All-South Central Region second teamers.
TAMIU tallied all-time high in penalty kicks converted (7 of 8) and the third fewest goals allowed total (20) in 2012.
TAMIU's landed in several other top-10 all-time statistical categories, including a second best shots-on-goal total (125), third best in shutout totals (7) and saves (88), fifth best shots total (258), sixth best points total (94) and goals total (35), and a tie for the seventh highest assist total (24).
TAMIU features stellar returners in every facet of its game, including starting goalkeeper Jesus Cisneros, backliners Joan Vallejo and Oscar Pompa and forwards Diego Manzano-Cano and Jovany Macias.
Cisneros was the only netminder TAMIU used last season, starting him in all 18 games and playing him through all 1,713 minutes of action.
Cisneros allowed only 20 goals by him over that span, compiling for a 1.05 goals-allowed average through both the non-conference and Heartland slates. In conference play, Cisneros formed a figurative brick wall in front of the Dustdevils' net.
He allowed only seven goals through 10 matches (0.66 GAA) to rank second in the Heartland – behind only St. Edward's keeper by a slim margin. His 0.877 saves percentage ranked atop the conference's keepers and his 34 saves stood as the second-most in the conference.
Cisneros also finished his junior year tied with the second-highest shutout total (6). He ranks third all-time with 84 career saves as a Dustdevil, and tops the TAMIU all-time list thanks to his 0.77 goals-allowed average, stretching back to 2010. He leads the all-time list for career shutouts (11.5) and the highest save percentage (0.842).
Vallejo, a senior, earned his second consecutive selection to the All-Conference first team in 2012, anchored TAMIU's defensive back row. The Barcelona, Spain, native helped the Dustdevils' defense finish second in the conference ranking with a 1.05 goals against average. Vallejo led all defenders with three goals– he also tallied one assist – finishing with seven points on the year.
Pompa, a 6-foot-3 backliner from Roma High, returns for his junior season after appearing in 16 matches in 2012 while registering five shots and scoring once.
Sophomore center back Camilo Botero, from Bogota, Colombia, will enter the Dustdevils' fray after a successful season stapling the backline for the Laredo Heat – of the USL Premier Development League. As a center back for the Southern Conference finalists, Botero appeared in 13 games for 1,049 minutes with two goals scored off seven shots with the 8-2-4 side that finished second in the Mid-South Division. He committed 11 fouls throughout the season.
Entering the season, Macias is tabbed as the corner kick and free kick taker, if the distance from goal is within range of the ballistics his boots are capable of delivering. In 2012, Macias appeared in 15 games with four goals – two game-winners – and three assists off 26 shots. He was named Heartland Conference Offensive Player of the Week for Sept. 3-9, 2012 and earned an All-Heartland Conference Second-Team nod for his accomplishments, including a perfect 2-for-2 penalty-kick conversion rate. As a freshman in 2011, Macias was named the conference's Freshman of the Year, to the All-Conference First Team and to the All-South Central Region Second Team after scoring four goals and four assists.
Heartland Conference and South Central Region standout Diego Manzano-Cano, a senior from Madrid, Spain, is coming off a scintillating junior campaign in which he was honored with First-Team All-Conference and Second-Team All-Region recognitions, while being named the Heartland's Offensive Player of the Week for Oct. 8-14. He appeared in 16 matches, shooting the second-most times in the Heartland Conference (53 times, 3.31 shots per game). He ranked third in the Heartland with 21 points (1.31 per game), tied for fourth in the conference with seven goals and tied for first in the conference with seven assists. He scored three game-winning goals, good for a tie for third best in the conference. In 2011, he was named the Heartland's Offensive Player of the Year, to the Daktronics South Central All-Region first team and to the All-Heartland First Team after leading the Heartland in goals, goals per game, points, points per game and game-winning goals.
Drury finished 12-5-2 last season, while the Dustdevils were 10-4-4. Last season, against ranked opponents, TAMIU went 0-2-1 while drawing No. 5 Midwestern State, 0-0. Since 2002, under head coach Claudio Arias, the Dustdevils stand 0-18-4 against top-25 competition.
The match kicks off at 11 a.m. on Saturday, and live stats from the game can be found at http://www.sidearmstats.com/tamiu/msoc/.
