RIO GRANDE, Ohio - The most highly-anticipated matchup of the 2012 Mid-South Conference men's soccer season takes place on Saturday night when the second-ranked Rio Grande RedStorm entertains top-ranked and defending national champion Lindsey Wilson College.
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. EST at Evan E. Davis Field.
Saturday's game will be the first No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup in the NAIA since last year's national title game, which saw the Blue Raiders defeat No. 2 Hastings, 3-2, in overtime.
Rio Grande, which is riding an eight-game winning streak, sports an 8-1 record overall and a 4-0 mark in the MSC. The RedStorm is coming off a 5-0 win at St. Catharine College on Wednesday night.
Senior forward Richard Isberner (Sao Paulo, Brazil), the reigning MSC Offensive Player of the Week, scored four goals in Wednesday's victory and leads a Rio offense that ranks 11th in the NAIA in goals (33) with 1.4 goals per game.
Despite missing a pair of games due to injury, Isberner leads the team in goals scored (10), points (22) and game-winning goals (3).
Junior midfielder Maxi Viera (Montevideo, Uruguay) and senior midfielder Oliver Hewitt-Fisher (Swansea, Wales) are also in double figures in terms of scoring for the RedStorm. Viera has six goals and three assists for 15 points, while Hewitt-Fisher has piled up 11 points-three goals, five assists-since returning from a knee injury that sidelined him up until the last four outings.
Senior goal keeper Jack Marchant (Leeds, England) holds a .560 goals against average, to rank 11th in the country. He's part of a defense that has pitched four straight shutouts and has blanked the opposition in five of the last six games.
Lindsey Wilson is 10-0 overall and 6-0 in league play. The Blue Raiders are coming off of a 3-1 win at home against Cumberland (TN) University on Tuesday night, their 33rd consecutive victory.
Lindsey Wilson, which will be playing away from home for just the fourth time this season and its first true road game since August 27th, leads the NAIA in total goals (44) and has outscored its opponents this season, 44-5.
Sophomore forward Philip Sandgren ranks third in the NAIA in points (30), goals (14) and sixth in goals per game (1.4) for the Blue Raiders, while sophomore goal keeper Yuta Nomura ranks 12th in the NAIA in goals against average (0.6).
The two programs have finished either first or second in the MSC standings since Rio Grande joined the league in 2009. The Blue Raiders won regular season titles in 2009 and 2011, while the RedStorm took the crown in 2010.
Rio Grande is 25-2 at home since 2010. Ironically, both of those losses came at the hands of the Blue Raiders during the 2011 season. In another note of irony, the home team has never won in the series.
In the last five meetings, Lindsey Wilson owns a slight 3-2 edge in the series, with four of the five contests decided by one goal.
In the last meeting between the two programs in MSC Tournament championship game on Nov. 10, 2011, Lindsey Wilson scored a 2-1 win thanks to the game-winner off the foot of Sandgren.
Since 2009, Lindsey Wilson is second in NAIA men's soccer in wins with 68, followed by the RedStorm with 67.
Live video of the contest will be available at www.ihigh.com/redstorm.
