INDIANAPOLIS - With exactly half of the league schedule remaining in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference men’s soccer landscape, it’s time look back on some of the storylines through early part of the season.
The second half of the conference schedule officially begins tomorrow Thursday, Oct. 6, and the six-team conference tournament bracket will be released later this month.
Between the seven men's soccer institutions, the fight for the six playoff spots in the conference tournament will undoubtedly be competitive down to the final week of the regular season.
Take Me Home, Country Roads
The top three schools in the standings by conference points are West Virginia institutions. Ohio Valley, Davis & Elkins and Alderson Broaddus, are all staking their claim among the league’s best and have aspirations to securing home-field advantage throughout the six-team conference tournament.
If the season were to end today, the Fighting Scots of OVU would host the G-MAC Championship with a 5-1-0 record. Both Ohio Valley and Davis & Elkins have put together separate five-game win streaks and the first meeting between the two schools tilted towards D&E.
The Fighting Scots and Senators will face each other in a rematch on Saturday, one of the most enticing conference matchups in the second half of the season.
How about Ohio Valley? The program has been revitalized from conference cellar dweller in 2014, just two years removed from going 0-17, to title contender. By pitching three consecutive shutouts heading into the second half of the conference schedule, Ohio Valley gets it done on defense led by junior keeper Carlos Rubio.
Alderson Broaddus is as dangerous as anyone and have faced the likes of Rockhurst, Fort Hays State and Gannon. The Battlers have been in this position before but are looking to take that elusive next step for eventual conference championship glory. Shavon John-Brown and Ashley Sibisi are tied for second in the G-MAC in points with 11 each.
By the Numbers
The G-MAC is currently 11-13-4 overall against non-conference competition. The league is a perfect 9-for-9 on penalty kick attempts. A total of 70 games have been completed by all schools combined. D&E's Lukas Grosse-Puppendahl leads single-game superlatives with six points and a hat trick compiled against Kentucky Wesleyan on Sept. 22; multiple players have logged a pair of assists this season. Malone's Cody Hilty is the single-game leader in saves by a keeper with 10 vs. Davis & Elkins.
Foreign Flair
Davis & Elkins is thriving with a new coach at the helm in Frank Olszewski and with countries like Germany, Norway, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Ireland, represented on the roster, it’s a true melting pot in Elkins, WV.
Freshman French keeper Hedi Mehnaoui has been the G-MAC Defensive Player of the Week twice. German first-year product Tim Staerz (and another former G-MAC Offensive Player of the Week this year) is part of a balanced offensive attack that has two players leading the team with three goals apiece. The Senators tied first-year league Malone in their G-MAC opener and have won five of their last six contests. Davis & Elkins is also unbeaten on the road in three games.
Trojan Time
Led by the top two point accumulators in the G-MAC, Nicolas Reinhard and Jeremiah Wright, Trevecca Nazarene leads the league in points as a team. The Trojans are in the midst of a five-game road stretch, but end the year with three straight in Nashville, a prime setup for enhancing playoff positioning. Playing Cedarville to a double-overtime draw on the road was an impressive way to start the league schedule. Baylor McKay and Danny Martinez have established themselves as two of the current top-10 point scorers in the conference as well.
The Hunted Becomes The Hunter
Three-time defending conference champion Cedarville is looking to heat up, showing a few signs of mortality that haven’t really been noticeable in recent history. The Yellow Jackets have already played four overtime contests (two in double OT) and have been on the short end of two of them. But Cedarville beat Alderson Broaddus in a highly-anticipated conference tournament final rematch and a battle-tested group with postseason experience is a dangerous draw in any situation.
Senior forward Connor Gilmour eclipsed 100 points (105) in his career and leads the team with four goals.
Regional Rankings
The first NCAA Division II Midwest Region rankings will be published around Wednesday, Oct. 19, following the regional advisory committee’s first conference call conducted by G-MAC Associate Commissioner Kevin Alcox on that Tuesday. While the rankings are contingent on several criteria set by the national committee, the NCAA Tournament bracket will feature at-large berths based on the final set of regional rankings.
Next year, the G-MAC is guaranteed an automatic qualifier spot in the national tourney. This year, however, it is hoping to send a few schools to the NCAA Midwest Regional based on their stock in the regional rankings.