GREENSBORO, N.C. – Ismail El Harchi headed home the game-winning goal in the 83
rd minute as No. 1 seed UNCG downed No. 3 seed Mercer 2-1 on Saturday to claim the Southern Conference Men’s Soccer Championship.
With the win, UNCG claims the SoCon’s automatic bid to the NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship. The NCAA Selection show will air on NCAA.com on Monday at 1 p.m.
El Harchi sent the home crowd of 1,362 into a frenzy when he nodded home the go-ahead goal at the 82:47 mark to break a 1-1 stalemate. Izaiah Vignali earned the assist on the play, as he rifled a shot on frame from 25 yards that Mercer keeper Trevor McMullen saved but could not wrap up. El Harchi was right there to pounce on the rebound and send the Spartans to their fifth SoCon tournament title and second in three seasons.
El Harchi’s score punctuated an effort that saw UNCG outshoot the Bears 15-4 and record four corner kicks to Mercer’s two.
McMullen kept the Bears in the contest with a season-best eight saves against UNCG’s high-scoring unit.
Mercer’s Kadeem Agard got the Bears on the board in the 27
th minute. A failed UNCG clearance ricocheted off a Spartan player and into Agard’s path, and the sophomore raced into the box and slotted it past a charging Niclas Wild for the early advantage.
The Spartans drew even in the 36
th minute, as Maycol Reyes drew a foul inside the penalty box off of a corner kick, resulting in a penalty kick for Basile Marc, who successfully converted it into the lower left corner.
UNCG had its chances in the second half prior to El Harchi’s difference-maker, but McMullen was up to the task. Moments after snuffing out SoCon Player of the Year JC Ngando’s close-range shot to the lower corner in the 57
th minute, McMullen handled a well-struck shot from El Harchi, as well.
Wild, who claimed the Pinnacle Award as the student-athlete with the highest GPA on the championship-winning team, recorded a pair of saves for UNCG in the win. He twice snuffed shots from Ousman Jabang, doing so in the fourth and 86th minutes of play.
The result moved the series between UNCG and Mercer to 2-2-1 in the SoCon tournament. The Spartans had been 0-1-1 against the Bears in the title match prior to Saturday’s win, with the squads last playing for the title in 2019, when Mercer won 1-0.
Ranked No. 7 nationally, the Spartans enter NCAA play with a 13-1-4 overall record. UNCG went 4-0-1 in league play this season to claim the league’s regular-season title, as well.
2022 SoCon Men’s Soccer Championship All-Tournament Team
Kieran Richards, ETSU
Sebastian Reventlow-Mourier, ETSU
Alfredo Diaz-Santillan, Furman
Jake Raine, Furman
Dylan Gaither, Mercer
Ousman Jabang, Mercer
Nick Wanzer, Mercer
Marco Afonso, UNCG
Ismail El Harchi, UNCG
Basile Marc, UNCG
JC Ngando, UNCG
Most Outstanding Player
Ismail El Harchi, UNCG
Pinnacle Award (highest GPA on championship-winning team)
Niclas Wild, UNCG
2022 SoCon Men's Soccer Championship
Friday, Nov. 4
Quarterfinals (at No. 1 & No. 2 seeds)
Match 1: No. 5 Furman 3, No. 4 Wofford 2 (Greensboro, N.C.)
Match 2: No. 3 Mercer 2, No. 6 VMI 1 (Johnson City, Tenn.)
Sunday, Nov. 6
Semifinals (at No. 1 & No. 2 seeds)
Match 3: No. 1 UNCG 6, No. 5 Furman 3
Match 4: No. 3 Mercer 1, No. 2 ETSU 0
Saturday, Nov. 12
Final (at highest remaining seed)
Match 5: No. 1 UNCG 2, No. 3 Mercer 1
* All times Eastern unless otherwise noted.
-www.SoConSports.com-