INDIANAPOLIS - For the third week of the season, the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Men’s Soccer Players of the Week were released on Monday afternoon.
The men's soccer season continued as 11 teams each played two conference matchups with Cedarville being the lone program to play two non-conference games on the road against Ashland and Slippery Rock.
Malone earned back-to-back wins against Lake Erie and rival Walsh to give first-year head coach Eric Reed his initial victories leading the program.
Undefeated Ohio Valley inched up from No. 3 to No. 2 in the United Soccer Coaches Poll and further validated the program’s lofty standing with three wins. The Fighting Scots finished off a re-scheduled contest with a win against No. 20 Northwood and proceeded to beat Alderson Broaddus two times in the most recent week.
Tiffin is currently tied with Ohio Valley for the lead in the league standings with nine points but won’t meet until Oct. 20, close to the end of the regular season.
Only six teams can make the conference postseason tournament and with five teams currently locked with six points for the final sixth spot, the next few weeks will be pivotal as the regular season plays out.
Offensive Player of the Week
Abdoul Magid Sy
Tiffin
Midfield
Junior
Columbus, OH (Westerville North HS)
Newcomer to the G-MAC Tiffin is making an impression on the league, starting the season with a 3-1 record in conference play. This past week, the Dragons (5-2-0, 3-1-0 G-MAC) sneaked past Trevecca Nazarene in double-overtime and tallied a 5-1 win at Kentucky Wesleyan.
Magid Sy contributed five goals during these wins, including a hat trick in just 35 minutes of play against the Panthers. He opened the game with an unassisted goal in the 7th minute and netted the Dragons’ third goal in the 14th minute.
Magid Sy added the Dragon's final goal of the day off of a pass from Malik Suleman in the 53rd minute of play to complete the rare single-game feat.
Earlier in the week, Magid Sy helped the Dragons tie the game after Trevecca Nazarene took an early lead. He added goals in the 31st and 73rd minutes to equalize the game and send the two teams to overtime.
Magid Sy leads the Dragons and the Great Midwest with nine goals and 19 points thus far in the season. He also leads the conference with 34 shots for a 4.86 shots per game average. Magid Sy is averaging 2.71 points per game on a blistering pace for the second-best single-season mark in league history.
Defensive Player of the Week
Jorge Bravo
No. 2 Ohio Valley
Goalkeeper
Senior
Canary Islands, Spain (Hannibal Lagrande-University)
The daunting task of filling former All-American keeper Carlos Rubio’s shoes has not been much of a challenge at all for Bravo this year with the Fighting Scots undefeated through three weeks of play.
Bravo is leading the G-MAC in save percentage (.889) with 16 saves in six games played. Bravo also leads the conference with five shutouts in just six chances, two of which came this week against conference opponents Davis & Elkins and Alderson Broaddus.
Bravo was critical in the Fighting Scots 3-2 win over No. 20 Northwood on Monday, which helped the team jump to No. 2 in the national coaches poll.
The offense backed up Bravo with plenty of support as OVU outscored its three opponents by a combined score of 9-2.
Bravo spent 270 minutes tending the net for Ohio Valley and faced only 15 shots during this time thanks to the Fighting Scots defensive unit.