It was a beautiful day for soccer on the banks of the Hudson River as the #5 Davis & Elkins Men's Soccer team took on #4 Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, New York this afternoon (November 12th) in the second round of the NCAA Soccer Tournament. When time expired, the Senators had punched their ticket to the NCAA Sweet 16 for the second consecutive year, shutting out the Mavericks 3-0 in a dominant performance on both sides of the ball.
In the first half of play, the Senators shot the ball 11 times to Mercy's 2, with 6 on goal. D&E had several great scoring chances that they narrowly missed putting into the net.
Breaking away toward goal, Daniel Cerezo had a one-on-one foot race to the ball with the Mavericks goalkeeper that led to a foul on Mercy when they collided, and a penalty kick for the Senators. Alex Estrada-Avila had no trouble finding the back of the net to put D&E up early in the 19th minute, 1-0. Davis & Elkins maintained control of the ball throughout the first half on solid defensive efforts from Josh Gabriel, Martin Lago, and Davide Materazzi. Beltran Fernandez had one save on a floating chip shot from the Mercy forward that he handled capably.
The second half was more of the same from the Senators as they continued to be the aggressors both offensively and defensively. Mercy wasn't able to get into any kind of rhythm or maintain ball control as the D&E defense was there to intercept the ball all over the pitch. D&E had an 11-3 shot advantage over Mercy, with 7 of those on goal. While the Senators had scoring chances throughout the second half, it wasn't until a breakaway for Haruki Yamazaki off a beautiful ball from Estrada-Avila in the 74th minute that D&E was able to score again. Yamazaki was able to create space on a nice hesitation move to put the ball into the left corner and the Senators on top 2-0.
Minutes later and perhaps with the memory of a 2-goal lead evaporating in the waning minutes of the MEC Semifinal, David Jara found Cristhian Bosquez for the insurance goal in the 80th minute. That was to be the final score of the game, shutting out Mercy 3-0 and sending the Senators to the NCAA Sweet 16 for the second time in as many seasons.
"Overall, very pleased to be back in the Sweet 16," said D&E head coach Dean Johnson after the game. "Guys stuck to the game plan really well despite some early frustration and eventually we were able to show out quality! Really proud of the group and we will continue to fight for the national championship!"
Original source can be found here.
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