LIVINGSTON, Ala. – After going undefeated through the first nine games of the conference schedule, the West Alabama men's soccer team will look forward to hosting the first round of the Gulf South Conference Championships this Sunday at Terry Bunn Field at Tiger Stadium. The Tigers finished the regular season ranked third and will host sixth-seed Mississippi College at 6 p.m.
Since this is a Gulf South Conference event being hosted by UWA, per GSC policy there will be an admission charge. General admission is $10 (which covers both games). All ticketing is electronic and may be purchased at the Hometown Ticket app or at the gate.
UWA Students should use their valid UWA ID number in the "Have a Passcode" box to unlock your free ticket. The cost for all other students is $5. Children five and under will be admitted free.
Also since this is a Gulf South Conference event, the live broadcast will be provided through the conference's partnership with FloSports, meaning there will be a fee to access the broadcast. The link for the feed can be found here. Mark Davis will provide play-by-play. Live stats will also be available for the game and can be found here.
Soccer fans will be treated to complimentary hot dogs and water while supplies last beginning at 4 p.m.
"It's a great honor to host the first round of the conference tournament. To finish third in what I believe to be the most competitive conference in division two soccer is a great achievement," head coach Ross Nelson said. "Obviously we would have liked to finish higher, but we made great progress this year and I have no doubt we will only continue to improve moving forward. Regardless of who we face in the first round, it's going to be an absolute battle, so we have to be ready and prepared to fight from start to finish. We are hoping to get Tiger Stadium absolutely rocking for this game, so we would love for all students and those affiliated with UWA to be there and be loud!"
After starting the season with a difficult non-conference schedule that had UWA facing Carson-Newman, Eckerd and Saint Leo, the Tigers were 0-2-1 following those three matches. Then once Gulf South Conference play started, UWA took off. Following a pair of ties, the Tigers tallied wins over Alabama Huntsville and Delta State, on their way to being undefeated over the first nine conference matches. Overall, UWA is 6-4-5 overall and 6-1-4 in GSC play. They went 3-0-2 at home.
Down the stretch, UWA defeated Union, Auburn Montgomery and Montevallo. After falling to Alabama Huntsville in a non-conference contest, the Tigers fell just short by a goal at Lee for their first conference loss. UWA then closed the regular season with a 2-0 win over Shorter.
Last year, UWA faced Auburn Montgomery on the road to open the conference tournament and fell by a score of 1-0. During the shortened 2020 season, UWA won at home against Montevallo, defeated Auburn Montgomery in penalty kicks before falling to Union in the semifinals. UWA is just a few years removed from the impressive 2017 season in which the Tigers went 16-3-1 overall and 10-1 in conference play, winning the GSC regular season title. The year before in 2016, UWA hosted the first round and later reached the conference championship game. Back to the 2014 and 2015 seasons, UWA won back-to-back GSC Conference Championship titles.
UWA has scored 16 goals on 168 shots, with 63 landing on target. Opponents have eight goals on 139 shots, with 54 on target. The Tigers lead the conference in goals allowed and goals allowed per game.
Patrick Sacher leads the team in points, goals and is tied for the lead in assists. He enters the tournament with 18 points, eight goals and two assists. Baronyi Kengeye adds six points on three goals. Killian Griffin has four points, with a goal and two assists. Harry Colville, Adrian Evrard, Alex Fernandez, Brandon Marquez and Shane Pettit all have two points this season. Yannick Pohland leads the back row with 1,328 minutes played. Ellis Williamson has logged 1,241 minutes and Kengeye is at 1,201. Richard Lopez is right behind with 1,181 minutes. Harry Deveney has put together a strong season in goal collecting six wins in 13 games, adding eight shutouts, 40 saves and an 87 save percentage.
"Well, I guess we are all very excited about the conference tournament and looking forward to these big games. I think our team has done very well this season, so we are very confident in playing a big role in the playoffs," Sacher said. "I am proud of the team and our performance so far and it would be very nice to get this program back to the top. The conference tournament is our next chance!"
Sacher is among the conference leaders in several categories including sixth in shots on goal, third in goals and goals per game, second in points per game and third in game-winning goals with three. Deveney leads the GSC in goals against average, save percentage, shutouts per game and is sixth in saves per game.
"Obviously we had quite a disappointing ending weekend to the regular season. We left Livingston hoping to come back as regular season champions, but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be. I think the disappointment of the regular season will have somewhat of a positive effect on us, as we're already itching to get back out on the field to put things right and get back to our winning ways," Shane Pettit said. "Over the course of the season we've created a family-like atmosphere within the group and to go all the way and win something together would be really special."
UWA matched up with Mississippi College back on Sep. 25 in Clinton, Miss., and the teams played to a 1-1 draw. UWA tallied the first goal from Kengeye in the 24th minute before Mississippi College came back to tie the game in the 67th minute. MC held the slight 11-10 edge in shots and both had five on target.
The Tigers are 4-6-1 against the Choctaws since 2013, with MC winning the previous four meetings before the tie earlier this season. UWA is 2-4 in Livingston in the series during that time.
Other matchups in the tournament include top-seed West Florida hosting #8 Spring Hill, #2 Lee hosting #7 Christian Brothers and #4 Montevallo hosting #5 Auburn Montgomery. The winners of the first round games will advance to the semifinals that will take place at John Hunt Park in Huntsville, Ala. That will take place Nov. 3-5.
Mississippi College is 10-3-2 overall and 6-3-2 in GSC play, they went 7-1 away from home this season. Their only loss on the road occurred last time out at West Florida with the Argos taking the 2-0 victory. Prior to that setback, the Choctaws had won three straight against Union, Louisiana Christian and Spring Hill.
MC has scored 30 goals this season on 234 shots, with 112 landing on goal. Opponents have 20 goals this season on 140 shots, with 74 landing on goal. Noah Wagner has put together a big season with 10 goals, with Felix Ewald adding six goals and an assist. Nicolas Milot and Guilherme Santos each have seven points. Joshua Davies has played the most minutes at 1,218, with Olaf Conforti adding 1,032 minutes. In goal, Cole Turner has played 11 games, picking up six wins and three shutouts, with 41 saves and a 77.4 save percentage.
"We're buzzing to host the quarterfinals this coming weekend in Tiger Stadium and hopefully we can get a good crowd down to support us to help us progress to the semifinals!" Pettit added.
