SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - The Lincoln men's soccer team defeated Drury, 3-1, on Saturday (Oct. 24) to clinch the GLVC regular season championship. The win improves the Blue Tigers to 11-0-4 overall and 10-0-3 in GLVC play while giving LU 33 total points in the league table, three more than any other conference opponent.
Lincoln, ranked No. 10 in this week's United Soccer Coaches Division II poll, out-shot Drury, ranked No. 22, 21-12 on Saturday. LU also held an 8-5 advantage on shots on goal.
Jerome Lawel scored in the 20th minute to give the Blue Tigers a 1-0 halftime advantage, and
Pedro Gomes scored what proved to be the game-winner in the 53rd minute.
Junior Grizzelle and
Jaden Grant respectively had the assists on those plays.
Drury (11-3-3, 9-2-3 GLVC) cut its deficit in half with a score in the 65th minute, but Lincoln regained the two-goal lead in the 74th minute when
Mo Yanis scored off a pass from Nicholas Assante. Grizzelle led Lincoln with five total shot attempts while Gomes and Lawel each tried three shots and tied with Yanis with two shots on goal.
Felipe Mattos got the win in the goal and made four saves.
Ackeem Mullings and Grant both had a shot on goal, and
Nathan Quashie finished with two shot attempts. Assante,
Shadrack Eshun,
Santiago Pineda and
Theon Cupee also attempted shots for the Blue Tigers, who will have the No. 1 seed in the upcoming GLVC Men's Soccer Championship tournament.
Before beginning its postseason run, the Blue Tigers will conclude a match against McKendree that was rained out in September with Lincoln leading, 2-0, with 4:19 remaining in the first half. The completion of that match will take place at Capital City High School on Tuesday (Oct. 27) at 2:00 p.m. CT.
