Championship Bracket (PDF)
INDIANAPOLIS – The top four seeds in the bracket were given all they could handle and ultimately prevailed in Great Midwest Athletic Conference Men’s Soccer Championship quarterfinal action spread out on Saturday.
No. 2 Ohio Valley, No. 3 Cedarville and No. 4 Tiffin, each won by one-goal margins of victory to move into the semifinals. Top seeded Lake Erie earned a 3-0 victory at home.
The semifinals will be conducted at Roger Glass Stadium on the campus of Chaminade Julienne High School this coming Thursday. The championship banquet will be on Wednesday with the all-conference team announced that evening.
Saturday was cold and windy around the Midwest as Tiffin and Walsh/Ohio Valley and Alderson Broaddus tangled in the early first-round matchups.
It looked like Tiffin and fifth-seeded Walsh would be headed to overtime before Abdoul Magid Sy scored his second goal of the game late in regulation. The Dragons crashed the box and formed a crowd off of Lucas Manneck’s beautiful set corner piece.
Tiffin now faces Lake Erie in one of the Thursday semifinal matchups at 7:30 p.m. ET. Cedarville will face Ohio Valley in the 5 p.m. ET contest. All four teams remaining teams from the conference bracket are ranked in NCAA Super Region 3.
Credit Walsh, one of five Super Region 3 ranked teams, for scoring the equalizer off a nice run down by Myles Cornwall. Cornwall found Alex Jackson for the game-tying goal in the 67th minute.
Ohio Valley and Alderson Broaddus were pitted on the turf surface in Marietta, Ohio, playing each other for the third time this season and second time in less than a week. It would be hard to find two programs more familiar with each other as the Fighting Scots held on to advance.
After winning 2-1 on Tuesday, OVU won 3-2 on Saturday as the No. 7 seeded Battlers really pushed their rival to the edge. Nicolas Rodriguez snapped a 1-1- tie in the 66th minute and David Barcedo chipped another goal in seven minutes later.
Cedarville and Findlay played under the lights as the No. 6 seeded Oilers proved to be a stingy first-round exit. Shots were low for both sides in a well-played defensive struggle while senior GK Carter Selvius pitched the playoff shutout.
Jonny Stephens put home the game winner with a header for Cedarville relatively early in the second half.
Lake Erie, ranked fourth nationally and first in Super Region 3, forged ahead against No. 8 seed Malone with a 3-0 victory. The Pioneers had really given the Storm fits in their only regular-season meeting, so the No. 1/8 matchup certainly wasn’t a done deal for LEC in terms of seeding.
Jonathon Carr scored his league-leading 13th goal of the season before he was helped out by Tom Akinola and Ameer Saade later in the game. The Storm reeled off their 18th consecutive win as Malone made its first conference championship appearance since joining the Great Midwest.