Tough road to hoe. It may not take too long to learn if this will, indeed, prove to be a very special men's soccer season for Seattle Pacific University. The Falcons aim to end a two-year postseason drought in 2003 and they have eight starters returning from a squad which went 11-6-2. However, the first six games are on the road, including a pair of dates featuring the top two Division II teams in the Far West Region. Following Saturday's (Aug. 23) exhibition match at Washington, SPU travels to Southern California and visits perennial power and No. 9-ranked Cal State Dominguez Hills for the first regular season game Aug. 30 at the Far West Classic. Seattle Pacific plays longtime rival Chico State in Carson, Ca., on Labor Day (Sept. 1).

The race is on. A sidebar to this entire season will be the ongoing race between Seattle Pacific's Cliff McCrath and Joe Bean, coach of Wheaton College (McCrath's alma mater), to become college soccer's all-time career leader in victories. McCrath and Bean finished last season with 541 wins each. Retired San Francisco coach Steve Negoesco is the current leader at 544. The soonest McCrath could go to the top of the list (needing a 4-0 start) is Sept. 8 while Bean, whose team plays its first four at home, can do it as soon as Sept. 10. McCrath has guided 33 Falcon teams to 456 wins and 32 consecutive winning seasons since 1970. This fall marks the 25th anniversary of McCrath's first NCAA championship team, the 20th of his second and the 10th of his fifth and most recent. The program, which has qualified for postseason play 28 times, was also national champion in 1985 and '86.

Will tide turn? Early on, McCrath's teams played and relished the role of underdog, pulling off upsets in four of their five title game victories. Now, after a lengthy run as the top dog in not only the region but the nation, they are out to prove themselves once again. Not since 1970 has SPU gone more than two consecutive seasons with a trip to the NCAA tournament and the last playoff victory was in 1998, when the Falcons reached the Final Four. Since then the balance of power in the Far West has shifted from Seattle Pacific to Dominguez Hills (2000 NCAA winner and '01 runner-up), and in the Northwest SPU has gone without a conference crown for two years. The Great Northwest Athletic Conference coaches have picked the team third, behind defending champion Western Washington and Seattle University.

Top gun returns. Certainly there is sufficient talent for McCrath to not only overtake Negoesco but also end the longest postseason drought in over 30 years. Among the key returnees are top scorer Jeremy Yerkes (Jr., Gresham, Or./Gresham-Tacoma CC), the GNAC newcomer of the year as a sophomore. Yerkes scored nine goals and accumulated 24 points as an attacking midfielder. Four of the other top seven scorers are also back in the fold, including all-region midfielder Brent Egbert (Sr., Bellingham, Wa./Sehome), midfielder Michael Brkich (Jr., Vancouver, B.C.) and forwards Nick Letts (So., Dublin, Ca./Redwood Christian) and David Smith (So., Corvallis, Or.). Letts hopes to continue where left off, after finishing with four goals and five assists in the last eight games. Along the back are all-GNAC pick Ross Vaillancourt (So., Bedford, NH/Manchester West) and two-year starters Matt Laughlin (Sr., Selah, Wa.) and goalie James Ward (Jr., Salem, Or./Sprague).

Added ingredients. Whereas Seattle Pacific regularly started six freshmen and sophomores, it will be more difficult for rookies to crack the first 11 this time around. Still, a few good men have that opportunity. Forward Andy Willis (Fr., Gig Harbor, Wa.), the top recruit from 2001, returns to action following a injury-plagued first season in which he claimed redshirt status. Michael Morris (Fr., Bothell, Wa./Blanchet) is vying for a role in midfield. Yet the newcomers who will likely be in the lineup Aug. 30 are defender Kye Taylor (So., Powell River, B.C.), a former Canadian youth international and transfer from D-I Coastal Carolina.

Front-loaded. This season's schedule is front-loaded in terms of road games. Following the tournament at Dominguez Hills and another at Bakersfield, SPU opens GNAC play Sept. 11 at Humboldt State. Aside from a mid-October tournament in Phoenix, the rest of the games are in the Pacific Northwest, including a five-game home stand to wrap-up the season. Four opponents are ranked among the preseason top 25, including No. 1 Sonoma State, CSDH, No. 16 Cal State Bakersfield and No. 23 UC Davis.

Footnotes. The Falcons conducted preseason drills on the new FieldTurf surface at Interbay Stadium. The synthetic grass with ground rubber infill replaces a predominantly natural grass field which was at the stadium since its inception in 1997. The first game at Interbay will be Sept. 19 versus Montana State Billings...Seattle Pacific will try to avoid the slow starts of 2000 (2-4-0), '01 (1-3-0) and '02 (4-3-1). It won its last four opening games...Smith scored the team's lone goal in last weekend's scrimmage at Oregon State...Defending champion Western Washington was picked to retain its GNAC title, with Seattle U. and SPU in a near-dead heat for runner-up. This year's conference schedule is a double round-robin format...The Division II playoff bracket expands from 16 to 24 teams this autumn, with three berths allotted per region...Over the summer, former three-time All-America keeper Marcus Hahnemann earned his fourth cap with the U.S. National Team. Hahnemann, who played on the '93 title team, just began his second full season with Reading of the English first division.

Missing links. For the latest and best information on Seattle Pacific University athletics, stay where you're at -- on The Falcons Online. For updated standings and statistics, see the Great Northwest Athletic Conference web site.