Men's Soccer Wins SoCon Regular Season Title

Saturday, November 1

8 pm

Mercer University

East Tenn. St.

11/1/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

MACON, Ga. – The Mercer men's soccer team defeated East Tennessee State, 1-0, on Saturday night at Bear Field to clinch the Southern Conference regular season title. The SoCon championship is the first for any Mercer team since the school joined the league earlier this year.

The win marked the team's eighth in its last 10 outings and sent the Bears to 12-6 (8-2 SoCon) on the year. The Bucs dropped to 7-9-1 (3-6-1 SoCon).

In a story that almost writes itself, senior defender Ashani Samuels scored Mercer's only goal on senior night. Samuels headed the ball into the net after Trenton Whitely found him from a corner kick in the 12th minute.

Fellow senior Greg Ranjitsingh made six saves in goal and tallied his ninth shutout of the season. Ranjitsingh and the Mercer defense lead the SoCon in shutouts this year.

The Bears outshot the Bucs, 16-10, but ETSU won the corner kick count, 3-2.

Mercer's 8-2 conference record in the first season of SoCon play bested Wofford's 7-2-1 mark for the regular season title. The championship came down to the final day of the regular season, as Wofford beat Furman 1-0 on Saturday and could have stolen the title had Mercer not defeated ETSU.

Mercer also secured a first round bye and the No. 1 seed in the SoCon tournament. The Bears will play on Thursday, Nov. 13 and will face the winner of the match between the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds.

Before Mercer heads to the SoCon tournament, it will wrap up regular season play on Monday, Nov. 3 at 6 p.m. when it hosts North Florida at Bear Field.

For all the latest information on Mercer men's soccer, please visit MercerBears.com or, for up-to-the-minute updates, follow Mercer soccer on Twitter at @Mercer_MSoccer or www.twitter.com/Mercer_MSoccer.