Cal State Fullerton senior Jesse Escalante and UC Riverside freshman Ashkan Khosravi secured Big West Men's Soccer Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week kudos for their standout individual performances.
Escalante Delivers Goal In Three Straight Games For Cal State Fullerton
Senior Jesse Escalante (Placentia, Calif./Valencia HS) infused Cal State Fullerton with some much needed offense, scoring a goal in three straight contests to nab the Big West Men's Soccer Offensive Player of the Week award.
The forward netted late goals in 2-1 and 4-2 losses to Cal State Bakersfield and Canisius, respectively.
In Sunday's finale at the UNLV Nike Invitational, Escalante was instrumental in getting the Titans their second win of the season in a 3-1 triumph versus Syracuse. He delivered the game-winning assist in the 16th minute, serving a corner kick that found the head of Anthony Rosales. Just four minutes earlier, Escalante notched a goal that knotted the match at 1-1.
Escalante booted a season-high four shots against Syracuse. For the week, he had nine shots overall with five on frame. His seven points on three goals and one assist by far led the Titans offensively.
Escalante has scored a goal in four of the last five outings. The five goals the Titans scored last week represented one more than they had scored all season to that point.
Others nominated: Chris Bernardi (Cal Poly); Sagi Lev-Ari (Cal State Northridge); Pavle Atanackovic (UC Irvine); Otis Earle (UC Riverside); Dom Sarle (UC Santa Barbara)
Khosravi Posts Pair of Clean Sheets For Second Award
Freshman Ashkan Khosravi (Dallas, Tex./Plano West HS) kept the enemy off the scoreboard for 180 scoreless minutes to bring UC Riverside within range of the school's single-season shutout record, which granted him Big West Men's Soccer Defensive Player of the Week honors.
The netminder from Dallas, Tex. continued to impress as he lowered his goals against average to 0.59 after tallying his fourth and fifth shutouts of the year.
UC Riverside blanked North Florida (5-0) and Nebraska-Omaha (1-0) to capture the title of the UCR/Courtyard by Marriott Soccer Invitational. Khosravi made six saves for the week.
The five shutouts are one short of tying the 2007 squad for the most shutouts in the Division I history of the program.
UCR improved upon its best start in Division I history to 7-0-0 and need just three more victories to set D-I era records for most wins in a season for a team and an individual goalie.
Khosravi has helped the Highlanders attain the highest national ranking in school history – No. 24 by College Soccer News – and the current start eclipses last year's 5-2-1 mark for best non-conference record. This was the second time this season that Khosravi has earned a POW award.
Others nominated: Wade Hamilton (Cal Poly); Anthony Rosales (Cal State Fullerton); Joe Franco (Cal State Northridge); Ryan Gross (UC Davis); Everett Pitts (UC Irvine)