Completed Event: Men's Soccer at Cal State Fullerton on September 14, 2025 , Loss , 0, to, 1
M Soccer
at Cal State Fullerton
L 0-1
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Thursday, August 22
Phoenix, Ariz.
7 p.m.
Grand Canyon
1-0-0, 0-0-0
3
vs
0
Western Illinois
0-1-0, 0-0-0
1
2
F
Western Ill.
0
0
0
Grand Canyon
2
1
3
Photo by: Jayden Todd
Nutornutsi pair, Muñoz bicycle kick star opening win
8/22/2024 11:32:00 PM | Men's Soccer, Paul Coro
GCU starts Kiefer coaching era with 3-0 home win against Western Illinois
It took a daily grind of dark mornings and toiling in the shadows for months to produce the highlights and bright smiles of Grand Canyon men's soccer team's opening night.
In head coach George Kiefer's first game at the helm, the Lopes defeated Western Illinois 3-0 on Thursday night at GCU Stadium with flashes of speed and sparkle with promising signs of more to come.
Lopes junior forward Bright Nutornutsi defined how fast GCU plays and its new high-pressing system with consecutive goals off turnovers in the 37th and 38th minutes. In the 60th minute, graduate midfielder Jony Muñoz moved to the front of the Lopes' highlight reel with a bicycle-kick goal that had the stadium buzzing and social media feeds reeling.
"It could be a SportsCenter goal," Kiefer said after his 23rd season opener as head coach.
Again with a steal setting up the goal, GCU junior midfielder Austin Pearcy swiped an inbound pass to start the play that sent the ball to the middle of the field. There, freshman forward Alan Hermitte touched the ball to sophomore midifielder Jorge Lopez, who was thinking of turning and firing.
"I had time and space," Lopez said. "I saw Jony moving into this space and thought how Jony and I had an interview the other day and were excited to be playing with each other. I thought, 'Jony's first GCU goal is coming.' What a banger he scored."
At the top of the box, Muñoz took Lopez's chip pass off his chest with his back to the goal and defenders to each side of him. Muñoz had never shown a bicycle kick in the Lopes' training, but the team captain went airborne as he flipped his body upside-down to boot the ball over the goalkeeper.
"It's instinct," said Muñoz, a Kansan who led NAIA champion MidAmerica Nazarene last season. "You don't really think about it. It just happens. They had left that gap open. Jorgito read it perfectly and sent the ball right where I needed it.
"Once I landed on the ground, I turned my head to look and the ball was rolling down on the net. It was satisfying. I can watch the video later. I was excited to get my first goal at GCU, and to do it that way is super exciting."
It was Lopez's second assist of the match after the Bakersfield, California, native collected three assists during his freshman season. Lopez also disrupted a sideline inbound to take possession and pass ahead to Nutornutsi, who darted by a defender and put his shot between the charging goalkeeper's legs from 16 yards out for a 2-0 lead.
Forty-five seconds prior to that goal, Nutorsutsi jumped a backfield pass to the Western Illinois goalkeeper when he and Lopez were pressing the defender. The Ghana native's four steps caught up to the pass before the goalkeeper and that 16-yard shot from the opposite side put GCU ahead 1-0.
"If you know me, I like to run and I like to press," said Nutornutsi, who recorded his second career two-goal game. "It was easy for me to run around. Things I do every day are easy for me.
"We put a lot of work in last spring. It wasn't easy. Preseason wasn't easy at all. We're fighting. We learned the system. We're from different places and are coming together. We are more together than last year, and that helps a lot. The knowledge that the coaches are implementing to us is making everything look good for us, but we have more room for improvement."
GCU only outshot Western Illinois 13-11 with the revamped Lopes defense of returning sophomore Diego Veliz and senior goalkeeper Leon Schmidt being joined on the starting back line by freshmen Liam Harrington, Damon Rouse and Viggo Gustavsson. Veliz and Harrington logged 90 minutes, as did graduate midfielder and Phoenix native Lalo Serrano.
The speed of the GCU lineup constantly beat Western Illinois to free balls and was beginning to connect upfield on passes and touches.
"The stuff we're seeing, it's close," Kiefer said. "I think we could've got in a lot more tonight, but that has me encouraged because that means guys are running and looking to get behind. Now, it's just the execution of that with the final pass. We could be really dangerous."
Gustavvson, Nutornutsi, Lopez, Serrano and sophomore forward Solo Bidanessy all launched threatening shots early in Thursday night's match before Nutornutsi's pair of goals tilted the field.
GCU will find out much more about how far it has come next week, when it plays at No. 20 Duke on Aug. 30. The Blue Devils opened the season Thursday night with a 2-2 draw at home against San Diego.
"They need to play Duke," Kiefer said of his Lopes. "Duke's going to press and chase. That's one of the better teams in the ACC. We're looking forward to that. That's important in the growth process. To be fair, they press, so let's see if we can break it and get behind them."
In head coach George Kiefer's first game at the helm, the Lopes defeated Western Illinois 3-0 on Thursday night at GCU Stadium with flashes of speed and sparkle with promising signs of more to come.
Lopes junior forward Bright Nutornutsi defined how fast GCU plays and its new high-pressing system with consecutive goals off turnovers in the 37th and 38th minutes. In the 60th minute, graduate midfielder Jony Muñoz moved to the front of the Lopes' highlight reel with a bicycle-kick goal that had the stadium buzzing and social media feeds reeling.
"It could be a SportsCenter goal," Kiefer said after his 23rd season opener as head coach.Again with a steal setting up the goal, GCU junior midfielder Austin Pearcy swiped an inbound pass to start the play that sent the ball to the middle of the field. There, freshman forward Alan Hermitte touched the ball to sophomore midifielder Jorge Lopez, who was thinking of turning and firing.
"I had time and space," Lopez said. "I saw Jony moving into this space and thought how Jony and I had an interview the other day and were excited to be playing with each other. I thought, 'Jony's first GCU goal is coming.' What a banger he scored."
At the top of the box, Muñoz took Lopez's chip pass off his chest with his back to the goal and defenders to each side of him. Muñoz had never shown a bicycle kick in the Lopes' training, but the team captain went airborne as he flipped his body upside-down to boot the ball over the goalkeeper.
Simply unreal 😱 #LopesUp | #SCTop10 https://t.co/qywkrsMeNf pic.twitter.com/NXT4tjAtlV
— GCU Men's Soccer (@GCU_MSoccer) August 23, 2024
"It's instinct," said Muñoz, a Kansan who led NAIA champion MidAmerica Nazarene last season. "You don't really think about it. It just happens. They had left that gap open. Jorgito read it perfectly and sent the ball right where I needed it.
"Once I landed on the ground, I turned my head to look and the ball was rolling down on the net. It was satisfying. I can watch the video later. I was excited to get my first goal at GCU, and to do it that way is super exciting."
It was Lopez's second assist of the match after the Bakersfield, California, native collected three assists during his freshman season. Lopez also disrupted a sideline inbound to take possession and pass ahead to Nutornutsi, who darted by a defender and put his shot between the charging goalkeeper's legs from 16 yards out for a 2-0 lead.
Forty-five seconds prior to that goal, Nutorsutsi jumped a backfield pass to the Western Illinois goalkeeper when he and Lopez were pressing the defender. The Ghana native's four steps caught up to the pass before the goalkeeper and that 16-yard shot from the opposite side put GCU ahead 1-0."If you know me, I like to run and I like to press," said Nutornutsi, who recorded his second career two-goal game. "It was easy for me to run around. Things I do every day are easy for me.
"We put a lot of work in last spring. It wasn't easy. Preseason wasn't easy at all. We're fighting. We learned the system. We're from different places and are coming together. We are more together than last year, and that helps a lot. The knowledge that the coaches are implementing to us is making everything look good for us, but we have more room for improvement."
GCU only outshot Western Illinois 13-11 with the revamped Lopes defense of returning sophomore Diego Veliz and senior goalkeeper Leon Schmidt being joined on the starting back line by freshmen Liam Harrington, Damon Rouse and Viggo Gustavsson. Veliz and Harrington logged 90 minutes, as did graduate midfielder and Phoenix native Lalo Serrano.The speed of the GCU lineup constantly beat Western Illinois to free balls and was beginning to connect upfield on passes and touches.
"The stuff we're seeing, it's close," Kiefer said. "I think we could've got in a lot more tonight, but that has me encouraged because that means guys are running and looking to get behind. Now, it's just the execution of that with the final pass. We could be really dangerous."
Gustavvson, Nutornutsi, Lopez, Serrano and sophomore forward Solo Bidanessy all launched threatening shots early in Thursday night's match before Nutornutsi's pair of goals tilted the field.
GCU will find out much more about how far it has come next week, when it plays at No. 20 Duke on Aug. 30. The Blue Devils opened the season Thursday night with a 2-2 draw at home against San Diego.
"They need to play Duke," Kiefer said of his Lopes. "Duke's going to press and chase. That's one of the better teams in the ACC. We're looking forward to that. That's important in the growth process. To be fair, they press, so let's see if we can break it and get behind them."
Team Stats
WIU
GCU
Goals
0
3
Shots
11
13
Shots on Goal
3
7
Saves
4
3
Corners
3
4
Fouls
7
14
Scoring Plays
Bright Nutornutsi (2)
GOAL by GCU Nutornutsi, Bright.
36:41
Bright Nutornutsi (2)
Assisted By: Jorge Lopez
GOAL by GCU Nutornutsi, Bright Assist by Lopez, Jorge.
37:26
Jony Muñoz (1)
Assisted By: Alan Hermitte , Jorge Lopez
GOAL by GCU Muñoz, Jony Assist by Hermitte, Alan and Lopez, Jorge.
59:40
Game Leaders
Shots
3
SOG
2
Goals
2
Assists
0
fwd
Shots
1
SOG
1
Goals
1
Assists
0
mid
Shots
1
SOG
0
Goals
0
Assists
2
Shots
3
SOG
2
Goals
0
Assists
1
Players Mentioned
F
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GK
/ Men's Soccer
M
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D
/ Men's SoccerGCU Athletics 2025-26 Welcome Back
Tuesday, September 16
Kendra Potts Post Match Press Conference | GCU vs NAU 9.7.25
Monday, September 08
"Your Life Arizona" Featuring Vice President of Athletics Jamie Boggs
Friday, September 05
Kaleb Smith | Media Availability | 9.3.25
Thursday, September 04