Men's Soccer | 11/6/2015 2:13:00 PM
HTML BOX SCOREERIE– The Bloomsburg University men's soccer team dropped a 1-0 decision at the hands of Millersville University in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) semifinals on Friday, hosted by Mercyhurst University. The Huskies, who entered the conference tournament as the number-three seed, dropped to 14-5-0 overall while Millersville, the second seed, advances to the PSAC Championship game on Sunday afternoon with a 14-3-1 overall record.
Friday's contest marked the second time this season that Bloomsburg was blanked by Millersville. The Huskies lost, 3-0, to the Marauders at Steph Pettit Stadium on September 9.
Prior to the contest, Bloomsburg junior
Josh Smith (Mechanicsburg/Mechanicsburg) earned the PSAC Champion Scholar-Athlete Award for having the highest cumulative GPA among athletes competing at the championship site. Smith has a perfect 4.0 GPA while majoring in exercise science.
Millersville's Jaime Vazquez scored the lone goal of the game at 17:39 when he beat Bloomsburg sophomore goalkeeper
Jared Ott (Philadelphia/Archbishop Ryan) (Philadelphia/Archbishop Ryan) after a long outlet pass from Ott's counterpart, Kohl Orner. Once Vazquez came up with the ball near midfield, he chipped a shot over the head of Ott that found the back of the net for his PSAC-leading 19
th goal of the season. The marker proved to be his eighth game-winning tally of the year.
Both Ott and Orner posted six saves for their respective teams. Ott's record fell to 8-3-0 on the season while Orner improved to 14-3-1 overall and posted his 10
th shutout of the season.
The Marauder defense did a great job in containing Bloomsburg's leading scorer,
Austin Transue (Langhorne/Neshaminy), not allowing the redshirt sophomore forward to even attempt a shot on Friday. It was Transue who helped the Huskies get to Friday's semifinal when he scored both goals in Tuesday's 2-1 double-overtime quarterfinal victory over Lock Haven at Steph Pettit Stadium. The goals were his 13
th and 14
th of the season as he finishes with the ninth-highest single-season goal total in program history.
Bloomsburg had some opportunities to knot the game, especially early in the second half when a flurry of activity produced three shot attempts and a corner kick. The only shot that got through, however, was off the foot of redshirt senior
Nick Izzo (Frankford, DE/Indian River), but Orner was able to make the stop. Sophomore
Anthony Cerda (Budd Lake, NJ/Mount Olive) had a couple of shot opportunities down the stretch, but, both times he was denied by Orner.
Cerda paced the Bloomsburg attack with two of the team's nine shots and two of its six shots on goal. The Huskies were outshot, 17-9, for the contest and were outdistanced in corner kicks by a 5-2 margin.
Vazquez had a match-high three shots, all of which were on goal.
The 14 victories by the Huskies this season are the most under head coach
Paul Payne who is in his 17
th season with the program. Bloomsburg won 13 games in 2014 – Payne's previous high – and advanced to the PSAC Championship game where it lost to Mercyhurst University by a 5-0 final. It advanced to the title game with a 1-0 win over Seton Hill in the semifinals.
The Huskies will await word as to whether or not they will make their second consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance when the selections are announced on Sunday, November 9 at 6:00 p.m. According to the latest rankings, the Huskies were fifth in the Atlantic Region.
Â
