Mercer Hosts VMI on Senior Day

Saturday, October 22

Macon, Ga.

7 PM

Mercer University

VMI

Jordan Duru, Ian Antley, Max Poore, Nickolas Tripodi Senior Day

10/21/2016 1:42:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Live Stats

MACON, Ga. – Mercer kept itself in the hunt for a second Southern Conference regular season championship with a 2-0 win over Wofford on Tuesday and will seek a similar result when it hosts visiting VMI at Bear Field on Saturday, Oct. 22 at 7 p.m.

The Bears (10-5-0, 5-2-0 SoCon) are tied with UNCG for second place in the SoCon standings with 15 points and trail conference leader ETSU by one point. All three teams won Tuesday, further building the anticipation for the final week of regular season.

Saturday will serve as Mercer's Senior Day, as four seniors – Ian Antley, Jordan Duru, Max Poore and Nickolas Tripodi – will be honored prior to the start of the match. The four players have contributed to Mercer's 40 total wins over the last four seasons and were key pieces to winning the SoCon regular season championship in 2014.

SATURDAY'S MATCHUP
Date: Saturday, Oct. 22 | 7 p.m.
Teams: Mercer (10-5-0, 5-2-0 SoCon) vs. VMI (0-13-0, 0-7-0 SoCon)
Location: Macon, Ga. | Bear Field
Live Stats: MercerBears.com/livestats
Twitter Updates: @Mercer_MSoccer
Promotion: Free s'mores and hot chocolate will be provided to fans. First come, first serve.

SERIES HISTORY
Mercer has defeated VMI in all eight of their head-to-head matches, including a 2-0 victory on Oct. 8 in Lexington, Virginia earlier this season. The Bears have recorded clean sheets in the last two meetings with the Keydets, including last year's 7-0 win in the SoCon Tournament opener in Macon.

NOTABLES

Mercer is the only SoCon team with double-digit wins this season.
The Bears are an impressive 5-1 overall and 3-0 during SoCon play at Bear Field.
Will Bagrou ranks fifth among SoCon players with 14 points. Conner Antley trails Bagrou closely, ranking seventh with 12 points.
Senior midfielder Jordan Duru has found the net three times this year, all resulting in game-winning goals for the Bears. His three game-winners put him in a four-way tie for first among conference players in the category.
Goalkeeper Jeremy Booth has notched three clean sheets and ranks second in the SoCon in goals against average (1.12 per game). He ranks 11th all-time in the SoCon career ranks with a 1.05 goals against average.
Mercer has five of the 10 fastest goals scored by SoCon players this year, including the top-three by Bagrou (0:26, 1:30) and Conner Antley (1:32).

SCOUTING THE KEYDETS
The Keydets' difficult 2016 season hasn't improved since Mercer last faced them in Lexington earlier this month. VMI remains winless overall and is coming off of a 5-1 defeat at the hands of league-leading ETSU on Tuesday. VMI is allowing an average of 4.08 goals per match, translating to a total of 53 goals against the Keydets – 33 more than the next closest team.

FOLLOW THE BEARS
For complete coverage of Mercer Men's Soccer, please follow the Bears on social media at @Mercer_MSoccer (Twitter) and /MercerMSoccer (Facebook) or visit the official home of Mercer Athletics at MercerBears.com.