Men's Soccer Announces Five Spring Matches
Your Pronghorns will be back in action after spring break with 5 matches across different levels of play.
Pronghorns first will take on the (NAIA) Battling Bears of Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana. Rocky Mountain had a successful fall season, achieving a national ranking and a National Tournament appearance. This will be a special game for previous pronghorn standout Aaron Lawson from Togo, who made his mark on the Cascades League this past season, popping in a couple of goals and adding 8 assists. This will mark his first match against Gillette since graduation in May 2025. Gillette will double-dip matches on March 29th with a 60-minute match against Northwest Elite, a club team representing some of the best Montana Talent.
Region 9 opponent Western Nebraska CC will come to town to take on Gillette for the 2nd time this calendar year. Gillette opened conference play with a 2-1 Loss to WNCC, which was ranked 25th in the nation at this time. The Pronghorns took this contest to the 90th minute in September, taking it down to the wire with a missed penalty kick to seal a 2-2 tie to open the Region 9 campaign.
The last match day will mark a round robin type style with Casper College NJCAA D1, and NCAA D2 South Dakota School of Mines. Recently, SDSM has gone through a head coaching change that has made them a competitive force in the RMAC conference. This day has an interesting tone as Coach Durfee has 3 former players now playing for the D2 university. One previous all-conference graduate, Gillette Julen Artega, hit the ground running. Julen contributed 19 goals in his 2-year career at Gillette. The 2 additional players featured for SDSM are previous players for Coach Durfee at his previous institution, New Mexico State University. Lucas Cardona (FR) was also a member of the New Mexico State University program under coach Durfee, making strides in SDSM's program as a starting midfielder for 85% of the matches this fall, credited with 4 assists. John Murray, another who played under coach Durfee at NMSU, played 15 matches as a freshman defender for SDSM.
Casper College and Gillette have had three matches since Coach Durfee arrived last April. This game has a special tone as Coach Durfee played under the current Casper College Coach McCarthur at Waldorf College in 2014. In the fall, the Pronghorns tied Casper at their home 1-1 and lost a conference comeback match 3-2 in conference play to the 14th nationally ranked side.