LAKELAND, Fla. – Southeastern men's soccer clinched the regular season Sun Conference title with a 4-0 win over Ave Maria and after enjoying a quarterfinal bye, are set to face fifth seeded Keiser University at 7 p.m. in the semifinals of The Sun Conference Tournament Saturday evening.
The Fire kicked off regular season conference play on a high note by defeating the Seahawks of Keiser 1-0 on September 30
th.
Corey Mills, a junior transfer from Florida Southern, was responsible for the lone goal in the 69
th minute and was assisted by
Nick Wilson.
To advance to the semifinals against Southeastern, Keiser pulled off the upset over fourth seeded Johnson & Wales with a 1-0 victory on Tuesday night. Senior forward Jesse Alves netted the game winner in the 22
nd minute with an assist from Emil Huovinen.
Keiser has lost four of its last six TSC matches, including the regular season finale to Johnson & Wales 2-0 before turning around and defeating them in quarters less than a week later.
Juniors Adil Iich and Shoval Failer lead the Seahawks with five goals apiece. Failer also has three assists and 13 points, good for the team high in both categories.
The first semifinal match will feature the second seeded St. Thomas University and third seeded Thomas University at 4 p.m. on the SEU Soccer Field.
Like Southeastern, St. Thomas was granted a quarterfinal bye while Thomas showcased an impressive come from behind win to defeat sixth seeded Florida Memorial 3-2 in the quarters.
Down 2-0, the Night Hawks scored three goals within a ten minute span for the win. Lyle Gifford, a senior midfielder, found the net in the 67
th and the 71
st minutes to knot it, then Joey Lopez scored the game winner in the 77
th.
Their regular season meeting on September 27
th ended 2-1 in St. Thomas' favor with the game winner occurring in the 73
rd minute off the boot of Federico Moronell.
St. Thomas finished the regular season 7-2 in conference play, falling to Southeastern 3-0, and Florida Memorial 3-2 in their final match of the regular season. The Bobcats are led by junior midfielder Kris Wilkinson who has five goals on the season. Trailing close behind is Victor Cortez who has three goals and leads the team with five assists.
After a five game conference win streak, the Thomas Night Hawks suffered back-to-back TSC losses to end the regular season. They fell to Southeastern 1-0 in mid-October then a week and a half later lost to SCAD 2-1. They finished the regular season 6-3 in league play.
Thomas is led by Gifford and Severin Abt. Each have tallied an impressive nine goals on the season while Gifford also leads the team with seven assists and 25 total points.
The winners of each semifinal game will advance to the championship game on Sunday at 5 p.m. Each of the three games will be in Lakeland at the SEU Soccer Complex.
Live video will be available via Stretch Internet, and
live stats will be provided through Dakstats.
The winner of the tourney secures an automatic bid to the NAIA National Tournament.
For scores and other updates on this weekend's excitement, be sure to follow @SEUFireMSoccer and @TSCSports on Twitter.
