TAMPA, Fla. -- The Western Michigan men's soccer team returns to non-conference action on Tuesday with its longest road trip of the year.

LAST TIME OUT
The Broncos opened conference action earning a point against an undefeated Belmont Bruins at home on Friday afternoon. Despite Belmont striking first on a PK in the first six minutes of the match, WMU found the equalizer in the 24th minute to take a point from the match.

Junior defender Braxton Arpachinda was the lone goal scorer for Western Michigan, scoring unassisted off a free kick just outside the penalty area in the 24th minute. Overall the Brown and Gold only had two shots on the match, but made both shots count with the game-tying goal and another close opportunity. 

DEFENSE CAN SCORE TOO
With two goals and an assist scored in the past week, junior defender Braxton Arpachinda has become Western Michigan's offensive leader in points. Arpachinda now has three goals on the season, having scored against Kentucky, Adrian, and Belmont for six points. He has also added two assists on goals against Butler and Adrian.

Arpachinda's three points against Adrian was a new career high for the defender. Prior to Monday night's game, Arpachinda's high was two points for the six games he has scored a goal in his career. With eight points on the season, Arpachinda is now in the Top 10 among Missouri Valley players for points. The junior is 10th in the conference and the only defender in the Top 10. 

FIRST 2020s TRIP TO THE SUNSHINE STATE
The Broncos are making their first trip to Florida for a match in 13 years on Tuesday night. WMU last played in the Sunshine State in 2012 at Florida Atlantic in Boca Raton, just an hour from Miami. Western Michigan had a four-match series with FAU spanning from 2008 to 2012 before Head Coach Chad Wiseman began his tenure with the Brown and Gold.

WMU has played South Florida in the past, but have not seen the Bulls in well over forty years. The only meeting between the two programs came in October of 1984 when the Broncos made their first trip to Tampa. USF took the win back in 1984 in a 3-1 decision. 

SCOUTING THE BULLS
South Florida comes into Tuesday night's match as one of 18 teams left in the country without a loss on the season. The Bulls have picked up four wins with five results for a .722 win-loss-tied percentage to be ranked 37th in the nation. Of USF's four wins this season, two have come in conference action against UAB and Tulsa while the other two were over Lipscomb and FGCU.

The Bulls are led on the field by graduate forward Fabio Bozesan as he has 11 points on the year with three goals and four assists. Bozesan is ranked 53rd in the nation with his 11 points and is third in the American Conference. But South Florida's star player has been redshirt junior goalkeeper Jahiem Wickham who is Top 50 in the country in goals against average (37th - 0.778), save percentage (33rd - 81.1%), and shutouts (49th - three). Wickham averages 3.33 saves per game while facing an average of 10.6 shots a game.