TIFFIN, Ohio – The Saginaw Valley State University men's soccer team defeated the top-seeded Tiffin Dragons by a score of 2-1 on Friday afternoon (11/7) in the 2014 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Tournament Semifinals.
Saginaw Valley advances to its third straight GLIAC Tournament Championship game on Sunday (11/9) at 1:00 pm against rival Northwood University.
The Dragons got on the board first in Friday's contest at the 20:39 mark of the first half. A corner kick led to a scramble in front of the net. Michael McPeek was able to get a pass through to Cedric Bruce-Kotey, who beat goalkeeper Alexandre Bouillennec to give Tiffin a 1-0 lead.
The teams would head to the halftime break with the Dragons holding on to that 1-0 lead. Tiffin out-shot SVSU by a margin of 7-5 in the first 45 minutes. The Cardinals and Dragons only managed to get four shots on goal in the first half.
The Cardinals bounced back in the second half and tied the game at 1-1 on a goal by senior Philip Strachan at the 52:05 mark. Strachan headed in a corner kick by Aleksandar Isaevski past the Tiffin goalkeeper for his third goal of the season.
About nine minutes later junior Vaughn Frederick gave the Cardinals a 2-1 lead. Frederick used a free kick by Isaevski to find the back of the net for his second goal of the year at the 60:57 mark. The two Isaevski assists gave him seven for the season.
The Cardinal defense held the one goal lead for the rest of the game to preserve the 2-1 victory.
Bouillennec took the win between the posts for SVSU and improved his record to 13-3-2 on the season. The freshman recorded three saves in the contest.
"Today was a true test of character for our team," said SVSU Head Coach Cale Wassermann. "Trying to bounce back after some tough recent results and going down an early goal in the game really tested our mental toughness. Our guys were 100% committed for the whole game and battled back to win the game. I thought we possessed and attacked well, but defensively were great in dealing with a lot of long balls and direct soccer. Vaughn Frederick not only got the winning goal but gave us a spark with his energy and quickness. He was the difference in our attack today. Today was great but Sunday is our focus now, playing a tough Northwood team for a Championship."
Sunday's championship game will be the third meeting between the Cardinals and Timberwolves this year. The teams played to a 0-0 draw in double overtime on September 12th at SVSU and Northwood defeated SVSU 2-1 in overtime on October 31st in Midland.