G-MAC Men's Soccer Championship Page
ELKINS, W.Va. – (portion of recap courtesy of @SenatorNation) The Great Midwest Athletic Conference Men’s Soccer Championship opened up on Thursday with the semifinal round featuring the regular-season champion Davis & Elkins Senators taking on the fourth seeded Salem International Tigers. D&E had faced SIU twice in the previous ten days, and made it three wins over the Tigers this season as they advance to the finals with an easy 6-2 win.
G-MAC Offensive Player of the Year James Pucci, who leads the nation in scoring, scored four times, carrying the offensive attack for the Senators. Branko Dugalic scored the game's opening marker just 56 seconds into the contest. However, the Tigers' responded quickly as Tomas Szabo notched the equalizer in the seventh minute.
Pucci put the Senators back in front with a free kick goal seven minutes later, and added the half's final tally in the 22nd minute to build the Senator lead to 3-1.
Pucci registered his third goal of the game 10 minutes into the second half, and Hasika Wijegunawardan extended the lead to 5-1. Pucci posted D&E's his fourth and the teams sixth goal to swell the lead to five at 6-1. SIU's Javier Reyes scored in the 84th minute to set the final 6-2 margin.
D&E goalkeeper Cameron Rivera made three saves to earn the win as the Senators outshot Salem 16-11, placing 13 shots on goal to just five for Salem.
In the second semifinal of the early afternoon doubleheader, Cedarville posted its third win of the season over Trevecca Nazarene University, with a similar 6-2 decision as game one. The Yellow Jackets got off to a quick start scoring the games first two goals in the 11th minute by Todd McKinley, and the 13th minute by Dillon King before TNU trimmed the lead back to a goal.
The back and forth between the Jackets and the Trojans continues as TNU answered King’s with a goal by Samuel Mummert in the 28th minute. However CU extended the lead back to two goals with a tally by Joel Twinem. Once again the Trojans answered just 20 second later this time as Matthew Esquivel scored. Cedarville holding the slim 3-2 lead, still in the first half, blew the game open with another goal in the first half, this time from Christian Alexander. In the second half, the Yellow Jackets secured the win with two more goals - one from Zach Harris and a second goal from Twinem on the afternoon.
In the goal, Ethan Dewhurst made three saves and allowed two goals, while Braydon Brown made five saves and allowed five goals. On the season, it was only the fourth time Dewhurst had given up more than one goal (once he gave up three and three times he gave up two). He has posted 11 shutouts this season and three games in which he allowed just one.
A full Championship Preview will be released on Friday in anticipation of the Saturday afternoon meeting between Davis and Elkins and Cedarville at noon on the campus of Davis & Elkins College.