Alumni Update – Early Season Check-in

Friday, September 29

Last weekend was a fruitful weekend for a few alumni playing in the region, scoring goals in early season conference games for their programs.

We’ll start with Dawson Heuett, who tallied the opening goal in what proved be a monumental moment for Eastern Oregon. The Mountaineers went on to record a 4-1 victory against Rocky Mountain that was the program’s first ever win against RMC in 11 tries since the Montana school joined the CCC back in 2015. Heuett has been a key part of the squad so far this season with eight appearances, four starts in the last five. His brother Garrett, similarly, has six appearances with starts in two of his last three. Their sister Emersyn on the women’s side has seen three appearances in her freshman campaign.

A little closer to home a pair of alumni featured prominently for Whitworth last weekend with Clayton Crockett and Emmy Moore getting on the scoreboard.

Crockett, who has started all 8 games, scored the opening goal in the Pirates’ 3-1 victory against Pacific and Moore tallied a goal and assist in a 2-0 win for the sweep, including an excellent free kick goal. She now has two goals and an assist in her eight games.

Moore is one of several alumni playing Graduate Student seasons among alumni, which also include players such as Lindsay Balkenbush (EOU), Chloe Gellhaus (SPU), Marissa Bankey (SPU) and Taryn Baxter (Mercyhurst) to name a few.

The Pirates are loaded with alumni seeing action – Men: Sterling Eaglin (6 starts, 1 goal), Johnny Finnegan (7 starts, 1 goal) and Eric Shaporda (4 starts, 2 goals, 1 assist); Women: Baylee Trejo (8 starts), Rebekah Hines (7 starts, 1 assist) and Caity Rathbun (5 starts).

Also seeing plenty of action locally at Gonzaga are Chelsea Le (10 starts, 1 assist), Kyah Le (3 starts, 1 assist), Makayla Warner (10 starts, 1 assist) and Emily Todd (8 appearances) with defender Abbie Sicilia awaiting her opportunity to join the steadfast back line.

On the men’s side for the Zags Chris Swider has been lighting it up in the early portion of the season with three goals and an assist in nnine starts with freshman Tanner Watkins also preparing for the future.

Rounding out the locals are the ladies at CC Spokane, The defending NWAC champions have started the season off well, including a 1-1 draw against championship contending rival Columbia Basin. Freshman Reese Walker has been tearing up as of late and has five goals and six assists (1st on team, in NWAC) for 16 points (2nd on team). Gracie Reidt is not far behind with three goals and an assist and Karlee Whitehead, another freshman, has three assists. Aubrey Thomas has chipped in with an assist and freshman duo Elise Jones and Kaiti Low have started five and four games, respectively.

Just down the road in Moscow Margo Schoesler has again been a leader for the Vandals, tallying a goal and four assists in nine starts as they early in their Big Sky slate at 6-2-2 overall.

The goalkeepers are off to a hot start as well, especially in the pair of Mercedes Cullen and Peyton Dixon. Cullen has started all four games for Seattle Pacific and allowed just two goals while Dixon has cemented herself as the starter at Grinnell in her freshman campaign, starting all eight games with only five goals allowed and five shutouts. They have both been honored as Conference Players of the Week. Also playing well in goal has been Amanda Flory (Wooster, 6 starts)

It probably does not hurt Cullen’s case that she has several alum in front of her. Defender Marissa Bankey has started all eight and has a goal. Chloe Gellhaus has started all five she has played and also has a goal. Erika Frahm has chipped in at the back as well in three appearances.

Goal scorers are easy to highlight – duh, but defenders have been crucial so far this season among the alumni. In addition to superstar Taryn Baxter off to yet another award-winning campaign (already a conference Player of the Week award) Abby Morrow (Lewis & Clark, 8 starts, 1 assist), Kailyn LaBrosse (Northwest Nazarene, 7 starts), Alaina O’Connell (Cal State San Bernardino, 6 starts), Cole Dobson (Pacific Lutheran, 7 starts), Trent Ripley (South Dakota Mines, 7 appearances, starts in last 2).

Oh, and working to find his first tally of the season across the state is Chris Perretti. The striker has started in all six of his appearances for the Top-10 ranked Huskies, including for their 1-1 draw earlier this month against the nation’s number one Stanford. Awaiting his turn in goal is Jadon Bowton with one start thus far.

Some other quick alumni updates…

Marcus Abdel-Malek (Humboldt) – Starts in last 3 games, 1 goal
Yacine Bitibale (Northwest Nazarene) – 4 appearances
Carolyn Moravec (Northwest Nazarene) – 7 appearances, 1 goal
Spencer Crithfield (Westmont) – 3 appearances
Donovan Howat (Westmont) – Started 6 of 7 appearances
Alex Reyes (Westmont) – 4 appearances
Addy Litscher (Carroll) – 2 appearances
Ella Carnahan (Embry-Riddle AU) – Started 6 of last 7, 1 goal
Grace Martinson (Embry-Riddle AU) – 11 appearances
Cadence Peroff (Arizona Christian) – Started 8 of 9, 2 goals
Olivia Azzollini (Pacific) – Started 5 of 6, 1 goal
Liv Olson (Pacific Lutheran) – 5 appearances, 1 goal
Faith Shaw (Biola) – 5 appearances, 1 assist
Bryce Allred (UNLV) – 9 appearances, started 4 of last 5
Cameron Kreider (Saint Martin’s) – Started 3 of 6 appearances
Carly Imes (Eastern Oregon) – 7 appearances
Lindsay Balkenbush (Eastern Oregon) – 1 appearance
Maddy Lasher (Idaho) – 1 appearance

— As always… if we missed someone, drop us a note. Sometimes it’s just TOO MANY to track 😉

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