Men’s soccer drops Susquehanna in semifinals, advances to title

Men’s soccer drops Susquehanna in semifinals, advances to title

The Elizabethtown College men’s soccer team celebrated senior day with a 3-0 victory over Juniata College on Saturday, Oct. 29. With the win, the Blue Jays clinched the top seed in the Landmark Conference Championship tournament.

Senior Jamison MacMain, one of eight seniors to be honored on Saturday, opened the scoring for the Blue Jays only 2:27 into the game. MacMain headed in a cross from fellow senior Liam Cunningham for his first goal of the year. Sophomore Gilbert Waso was also credited with an assist on the play.

The Blue Jays entered the game with 31 wins in 31 games against Juniata and improved that record with the shutout victory. Etown entered the game ranked 18th in the latest D3soccer.com Top 25 poll.

Waso was a handful for the Eagles defense all afternoon, setting up his teammates for opportunities all over the field. He recorded two assists and scored a goal of his own in the 63rd minute to put the game out of reach.

Waso’s second assist came on first-year JD Haaf’s fourth goal of the season. Waso’s goal was his conference-leading 14th of the year. He currently leads the conference with 34 points.

Along with MacMain and Cunningham, the Blue Jays honored Noah Andrews, Brent Batory, Tyler Caton, Ian Harrigan, Jeff Light and Ryan Sandell. This senior class owns a 46-15-10 record going into the Landmark playoffs.

Last night, the Blue Jays hosted the Landmark Conference semifinals against Susquehanna University. The top seeded Blue Jays were trying to avenge a Landmark playoffs loss as the favorites last season against the University of Scranton.

The Blue Jays jumped out front of Susquehanna early in Wednesday’s semifinal, scoring in the 15th minute to take a 1-0 lead. Sophomore Tyler Colasanto picked a good time to score his first career goal. First-year JD Haaf set up Colasanto for the first of his two assists on the night.

In the 32nd minute, the Blue Jays struck again when Waso scored his 15th goal of the season to give Etown a 2-0 lead. The Blue Jays would enter the half with the same two goal advantage over the River Hawks.

Less than 10 minutes into the second half, first-year Duncan George put the game out of reach with his fifth goal of the year. The Blue Jays held a 3-0 lead over Susquehanna, one that they would not relinquish.

In the 66th minute, Susquehanna was able to get on the board with a goal from Maxfield Reed to cut the defecit to two.

Sandell made three saves for the Blue Jays, earning his 12th win of the season in net.

With the victory, the Blue Jays will host the Landmark Conference Championship game on Saturday. In Wednesday’s other Landmark Conference semifinal, the University of Scranton defeated Drew University, 2-1 to advance to Saturday’s championship game. The Blue Jays defeated Scranton on the road back on Oct. 1, 2-1.

This year’s championship is a rematch of last year’s championship game, which Scranton won to reach the NCAA tournament. Kick off is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Ira R. Herr Field.

This is Etown’s third conference championship appearance in the last four years. The Blue Jays are seeking their 21st conference title all-time and their first in the Landmark Conference. Etown’s last conference title came in 2006 when they were still a member of the Middle Atlantic Conference’s Commonwealth Conference.

 

Senior Edition

Issuu is a digital publishing platform that makes it simple to publish magazines, catalogs, newspapers, books, and more online. Easily share your publications and get them in front of Issuu's millions of monthly readers. Title: Senior Edition, Author: The Etownian, Name: Senior Edition, Length: 10 pages, Page: 1, Published: 2020-04-30