Super Senior Day

Saturday, October 9

Macon, Ga.

1:00 PM

Mercer University

4-6-1, 2-1-1

VMI

1-11-0, 0-4-0

VMI

Mercer

10/9/2021 3:46:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

Bears tear apart VMI at Five Star Stadium

MACON, Ga. – The Mercer men's soccer team powered their way to a 5-0 win over visiting VMI behind three first half goals at Five Star Stadium. With the senior day win, Mercer (4-6-1, 2-1-1 SoCon) snapped a winless four-match streak that spanned from right after the SoCon opening-win over Furman.

Wasting little time, Dylan Gaither opened the scoring in the third minute to set the tone over the Keydets (1-11, 0-3 SoCon) in the match. 21 minutes later, the Bears doubled the lead when Michael Ille found the back of the net with a little help from Ousman Jabang. Following a foul from VMI that set up a Mercer free kick, Gaither completed a brace when he sent a no-doubter into the left side of the goal that the Keydet keeper had no chance to save for the 3-0 lead.

31' » @dylgaither with a BRACE in the first half. MU 3 - 0 VMI#RoarTogether pic.twitter.com/ZU2eWNUaTs — Mercer Men's Soccer (@Mercer_MSoccer) October 9, 2021

Mercer opened the second half like they did the first, with an early goal just four minutes into the period. Kevin Kim knocked in his first career strike with assists that came from Jabang and Pondeca inside the 18-yard box to up the Bears' lead to four. Ille completed a brace of his own when he connected with Gaither and Jabang in the 59^th minute to cap the Bears' lead to five.

The Bears fired off 19 shots in the contest, and 13 of them were on target.

Trevor McMullen and George Iakovidis split the 90 minutes in the net and combined for the fifth clean sheet of the season, and third in league play. Iakovidis stopped a pair of shots, while McMullen halted one.

The 5-0 decision was the biggest SoCon clean sheet since a 7-0 romp over VMI in the 2017 season.
This upcoming Saturday, the Bears will make the trek down I-16 to take on Georgia Southern. Kickoff from Statesboro against the Eagles is set for 7 p.m. before the penultimate home match against Jacksonville on the 19^th.

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