Mercer 3, Florida Atlantic 0
STATESBORO, Ga. – The Mercer men’s soccer team cruised past Florida Atlantic, 3-0, on Sunday afternoon to win the Marriott Springhill Suites Invitational, hosted by Georgia Southern.
The Bears (4-2) went 2-0 to win the tournament, and Will Bagrou, Ashani Samuels, Jordan Duru and Ian Antley were named to the all-tournament team.
Max Poore scored on a penalty kick to put the Bears up 1-0 in the 15th minute. Florida Atlantic (0-5-1) won a penalty kick late in the first half, but it hit the crossbar and the Bears entered halftime with a 1-0 advantage.
In the 68th minute, Andrew McKeever played the ball down the left side of the field to Bagrou, who crossed in front of the goal, and Jourdan Gooden found the back of the net to stretch Mercer’s lead to 2-0.
The Bears scored again and increased the score to 3-0 in the 88th minute when David Murtagh threw the ball to Nick Tripodi, who then played in Chandler Klemm for a finish inside the box.
Mercer’s defense recorded its second shutout of the weekend, aided by Greg Ranjitsingh’s seven saves. Florida Atlantic outshot Mercer 13-11, but the Owls were unable to score off any of those attempts.
Next up, the Bears travel to Evansville, Ind., for the ProRehab Aces Soccer Classic. Mercer will face Evansville on Friday, Sept. 19, at 8:30 p.m. and Bradley on Sunday, Sept. 21, at 2:30 p.m.
Robert Morris 4, VMI 0
LEXINGTON, Va. – In the final game of the 2014 Jay Sculley Memorial Tournament, the Virginia Military Institute men’s soccer team had chances early in each half, but the Colonials of Robert Morris University struck twice in each stanza to top VMI 4-0 in nonconference action at Patchin Field on Sunday.
Robert Morris’ Neco Brett finished with five points on two goals and one assist, while Devon Williams had three points with one goal and one assist. Bruce Cullen added two helpers to his scoring line, while Corey McCurdy accounted for the Colonials’ fifth assist. Jared Latchford also tallied a goal for Robert Morris.
In the first-ever meeting between the programs, VMI’s Alex Guerra made five saves but took the loss. Added to his save total was a penalty kick attempted by Brett, followed by a rebound shot from Latchford. Colonial keeper Brenden Alfery took the win in 74 minutes of work, making six saves before he was spelled by Winter Fondi for the final 16 minutes.
VMI (1-4-0) wasn’t without its chances, as nine of the Keydets’ 14 shots were on goal, including a pair from Travis Borkey off the bench. Borkey challenged Alfery in the first 30 seconds of the second half after slipping past his defender and sizing up the Robert Morris keeper.
The Colonials (2-2-1) outshot VMI 19-14 in the contest, including 12 attempts in the second half. Brett was the leading shooter with five attempts, four of which were on goal. Cullen also took five chances but just one was on goal, and Latchford put both of his shots on frame.
VMI earned seven corner kicks during the game, with four coming in the second half. Robert Morris had four, taking a pair in each half. The Keydets committed 12 fouls in the game, while three players were booked with yellow cards. Robert Morris was whistled eight times.
Robert Morris, which fell to Liberty University 2-1 in overtime in the first game of the tournament on Friday, got on the board early as Williams found the back of the cage in the 10th minute. He and Brett worked a give-and-go at the top of the box to connect for the first goal of the game.
Half an hour later, Cullen and Latchford connected with the former ripping a shot that was initially stopped by Guerra, but the ensuing rebound was collected by Latchford and pushed over the line to put the Colonials up 2-0 at the break.
Twelve minutes into the second stanza, Brett scored the first of his two goals as Williams connected a pass to Cullen, who found Brett waiting at the top of the box to put Robert Morris up 3-0. Williams and Cullen were credited with assists on the play.
The final play of the afternoon came in the 71st minute as Brett received a long pass up the middle from McCurdy. Brett slipped around his defender before depositing a shot in the back of the net.
Early in the afternoon, Liberty topped USC Upstate 3-1 to see the Flames go 2-0-0 during the 2014 Jay Sculley Memorial Tournament.
VMI is idle for nearly a week as the Keydets await Howard University next Saturday. Action on Sept. 21 is set for 2 p.m. at Patchin Field to round out a three-game homestand for the Keydets, the team’s longest such stretch since the middle of the 2012 season.