Saturday, November 12
Greensboro, NC
6 PM
Mercer University
8-5-6, 2-1-2
1
at
2
UNC Greensboro
13-1-4, 4-0-1
1
2
F
Mercer
1
0
1
UNC Greensboro
1
1
2
Team Stats
Mercer
UNCG
Goals
1
2
Shots
4
15
Shots on Goal
3
10
Saves
8
2
Corners
2
4
Fouls
16
10
Scoring Plays
Kadeem Agard (5)
GOAL by Mercer Agard, Kadeem.
26:41
Basile Marc (1)
UNCG Basile Marc PENALTY KICK GOAL.
35:30
Ismail El Harchi (9)
Assisted By: Izaiah Vignali
GOAL by UNCG El Harchi, Ismail Assist by Vignali, Izaiah.
82:47
Game Leaders
Players
Shots
1
SOG
1
Goals
1
Assists
0
Shots
2
SOG
2
Goals
0
Assists
0
Shots
1
SOG
0
Goals
0
Assists
0
Players Mentioned
MF
/ Men's Soccer
UNCG Edges Bears in Conference Championship
11/13/2022 1:19:00 PM | Men's Soccer
GREENSBORO, N.C. —The Mercer Bears dropped a hard-fought championship game against UNCG 2-1 at the UNCG Soccer Stadium on Saturday night.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Bears entered the game as the No. 3 seed and UNCG was the No. 1 seed. The home-standing Spartans came out strong, but Mercer maintained their tight defense and forced UNCG to make some early mistakes. Tight defense by backliners Chad Eldridge, William Pondeca, Sekou Agard, and Bryant Jackson kept UNCG midfielders and attackmen quiet in the early stages.
With 27 minutes gone in the Championship game, a UNCG center back tried to clear the ball away from the Bear's press. However, the ball was deflected off his own player and fell into the feet of Kadeem Agard who was able to run by the final defender and slot it by Niclas Wild, securing an early goal and lead for the Bears.
In the 35th minute, UNCG was able to draw a penalty kick. Basile Marc stepped up for the Spartans and secured the equalizing goal for UNCG.
In the 83rd minute, a shot outside the 18 from UNCG's Izaiah Vignali was saved by McMullen and ended up on the head of Ismail El Harchi who gave UNCG the lead and ultimately the win.
Following the game, Coach Brad Ruzzo had this to say about his team and the seniors:
"I'm extremely proud of this team and program to make our sixth final in nine seasons in the Southern Conference. We competed and battled hard tonight with the No. 7 ranked team in the nation at their place and just came up short. These seniors can be proud to have won two conference championships, and three conference tournament finals, and appeared in two NCAA tournaments in their time at Mercer and certainly have left a legacy. They have certainly left the program in a great place and we cannot thank them enough for all their hard work for the program and the University and for keeping Mercer on the national map."
NOTABLES
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Bears entered the game as the No. 3 seed and UNCG was the No. 1 seed. The home-standing Spartans came out strong, but Mercer maintained their tight defense and forced UNCG to make some early mistakes. Tight defense by backliners Chad Eldridge, William Pondeca, Sekou Agard, and Bryant Jackson kept UNCG midfielders and attackmen quiet in the early stages.
With 27 minutes gone in the Championship game, a UNCG center back tried to clear the ball away from the Bear's press. However, the ball was deflected off his own player and fell into the feet of Kadeem Agard who was able to run by the final defender and slot it by Niclas Wild, securing an early goal and lead for the Bears.
In the 35th minute, UNCG was able to draw a penalty kick. Basile Marc stepped up for the Spartans and secured the equalizing goal for UNCG.
In the 83rd minute, a shot outside the 18 from UNCG's Izaiah Vignali was saved by McMullen and ended up on the head of Ismail El Harchi who gave UNCG the lead and ultimately the win.
Following the game, Coach Brad Ruzzo had this to say about his team and the seniors:
"I'm extremely proud of this team and program to make our sixth final in nine seasons in the Southern Conference. We competed and battled hard tonight with the No. 7 ranked team in the nation at their place and just came up short. These seniors can be proud to have won two conference championships, and three conference tournament finals, and appeared in two NCAA tournaments in their time at Mercer and certainly have left a legacy. They have certainly left the program in a great place and we cannot thank them enough for all their hard work for the program and the University and for keeping Mercer on the national map."
NOTABLES
- Goalkeeper Trevor McMullen was credited with eight saves and additionally intercepted several dangerous crossing attempts
- The Bears received one yellow card (Angel Gonzalez)
- 3 Bears were selected to be on the SoCon All-Tournament Team (Dylan Gaither, Ousman Jabang, Nick Wanzer)
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