PETE'S PREVIEW - STARS LOOK TO SWEEP EXPRESS

by Pete Richmier

Tacoma, WA. – The Tacoma Stars (5-8) and the Turlock Cal Express (4-9) will face off Friday night for the final time during the regular season. Turlock enters the match looking for their first road win since their 7-6 win in San Diego back on November 24 while the Stars are finding their momentum after the last two amazing home matches, a win over Monterrey and a one-goal loss to Harrisburg.

The Stars lead the season series 2-0 over the Cal Express with a 7-4 win at the accesso ShoWare Center on January 10. Alex Caceres leads Tacoma’s scorers against Turlock with six points in the two meetings (4G-2A). Nick Perera (0G-4A) and Mike Ramos (3G-1A) also have a pair of multi-point matches vs the Cal Express.

For the visitors, it’s Gerardo Jurado (3G-0A), Luis Brambila (1G-1A), Adrian Gutierrez (2G-0A), and Ivan Campos (0G-3A) are the only players with more than one point against the Stars this season. For the season, Gutierrez leads Turlock in scoring with 19 points followed by Juan Manuel Rojo and Campos with 13 each.

Perera continues to set the pace for Tacoma in offensive production with 34 points (16G-18) while Ramos leads the team in goals and his 28 points (19G-9A) are second on the team. Caceres (8G-9A) is the remaining Star with double-digit scoring this season.

A few milestones are on the horizon for Stars players. Troy Peterson’s next match will be the 100th of his career. Perera is one goal away from number 200 during his tenure in the league. Finally, ’Dizzy’ Dan Antoniuk needs just one goal to reach 50 for his career.