The men's soccer team is one step closer to claiming another South Region Championship after today's 4-0 victory over Trinity Baptist College in the semifinals of the NCCAA DII South Region Tournament in Jacksonville, Florida. With today's win, the Bruins have advanced to the region championship on Saturday.
"We came out to make a statement about our intentions in the region and I believe our team did a fantastic job," said Head Coach Greg Fulton. "We have been looking forward to this moment all year and it was nice to start strong and beat a solid team. Ultimately we will look to improve on our finishing but we are really happy with the chances we created, both in quality and quantity. Now we recover and reset for a battle against Pensacola."
The Bruins secured the #1 seed heading into this week's NCCAA DII South Region Tournament after a successful regular season. The tournament began Wednesday with #4 Trinity Baptist College taking on #5 Toccoa Falls College. Trinity Baptist was able to come away with the 4-1 win advancing them to today's semifinal match.
As the whistle blew and today's semifinal match began, both teams exchanged fouls to kick off the game. The Bruins then started applying the pressure with several good looks on goal in the early minutes.
It was only a matter of time before the goals started flowing. In the 22nd minute, Peter Waddy set up to take a corner kick. As he sailed the ball across the net, Matthias Baladi pressed forward and headed the ball into the back of the net to give the Bruins the 1-0 lead.
Wasting no time, the Bruins were back with another goal just four minutes later. This time it was Gasheed Lareche who collected the ball and dribbled toward the top of the box where he scored to double the lead for the Bruins.
A long range shot from Conley Burk gave the Bruins the 3-0 lead in the 29th minute. The Bruins kept pressuring and looking for another goal, and as the Bruins and Eagles went into halftime, the Bruins saw themselves on top with three goals and 16 shots, keeping the Eagles at zero on both categories.
Coming back after the break, the Bruins went back on the attack and three minutes in Micah Hennegan's shot on goal took a bounce off of Trinity's goalkeeper to see the Bruins increase their lead.
The Bruins battled out to a 4-0 win to remain undefeated in conference play and advance to the south region championship.
Saturday's region championship will take place at 11 a.m. in Jacksonville, Florida. The Bruins will face #2 Pensacola Christian College who beat #3 Johnson University (FL) Thursday evening.
