Official Great Midwest Men's Soccer Championship Page
INDIANAPOLIS – The list of title contenders was trimmed in half following the quarterfinal matchups of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Men’s Soccer Championship on Saturday.
Eight teams gave it their all in the playoffs on a soggy Saturday with heavy rains and uncomfortable temperatures that had players wearing long sleeves, leggings, gloves and head gear.
At the end of the day, favored seeds No. 1 Ohio Valley, No. 2 Davis & Elkins and No. 3 Findlay all advanced, along with an upset provided by No. 5 Cedarville over a No. 4 seed. The four teams will now gather for the championship banquet Wednesday evening at top seed and Great Midwest regular season champion Ohio Valley for the semifinals.
The men’s semifinal contests will then be conducted in New Concord, Ohio, at Muskingum University on Thursday, November 2.
Ohio Valley (15-1-3) and Cedarville (9-8-1) get the early draw with an 11 a.m. ET start while Davis & Elkins (13-2-2) and Findlay (13-5-0) will follow with a projected start time of 1:30 p.m. ET.
The Great Midwest Championship game will be played on Saturday, November 4, at 11 a.m. ET to decide the league’s automatic qualifier in the NCAA Championship Midwest Regional.
The annual all-conference team as voted by the coaches will also be announced this week.
Streaming for all remaining conference tournament games will be conducted on the Great Midwest Digital Network pending a logistical review of the Muskingum soccer facility.
The conference has two teams currently positioned in the second wave of the Midwest Region rankings (G-MAC, GLVC, GLIAC) led by Ohio Valley at the top and Davis & Elkins slotted at sixth.
Ohio Valley, ranked sixth nationally, emerged as a 4-0 winner against No. 8 seed Walsh as the Cavaliers made a playoff appearance in the first season with the league. The Fighting Scots carried a 1-0 lead into the intermission, but blitzed Walsh with three second-half scores from Nicolas Rodriguez, Isovan Padonou and Sebastian Jaramillo.
OVU had an overwhelming 37-1 edge in the shot department and kept the pressure on with 18 corner kicks.
Great Midwest Offensive Player of the Week Josh Dickinson scored twice for Findlay as the Oilers defeated No. 6 Trevecca Nazarene and continued their postseason run.
D&E/No. 7 Ohio Dominican and Cedarville/No. 5 Alderson Broaddus both shared a 6 p.m. start time with nightfall approaching and cold temperatures with winds setting in. The Senators slowed down a red-hot Ohio Dominican program that had won six straight entering the postseason.
D&E’s Tim Staerz found the net twice in a span of less than six minutes to score the go-ahead and the game-winning goals in driving rain.
The Yellow Jackets eliminated the defending conference tourney champs from consideration with a 1-0 shutout. Cole Butaud scored in the 16th minute and the Cedarville defense was on lockdown mode the rest of the way.
Worth noting is Cedarville and Ohio Valley battled to a 1-1 stalemate in their last meeting, the regular season finale for both programs. D&E had the upper hand against Findlay in the prior meeting this year back on Sept. 28, a 3-0 Senators’ win.