Cal State Northridge 2, Cal Poly 0 in the Big West semis. Goals by Lev-Ari (13th) and Carlos Gonzalez (1st). Northridge (14-6) will face UC Davis in the finals. I think both are going to the NCAAs regardless of who wins.
Cal State Northridge improved to 14-6-0 on the season and advanced to the Big West Championship game for the first time ever with a 2-0 win over Cal Poly. CSUN controlled pretty much the entire game. They buried Cal Poly under a barrage of 21 shots, 11 of which were on goal, but could not break through against Cal Poly keeper Wade Hamilton until the 60th minute. Sophomore forward Sagi Lev-Ari scored his 13th goal of the season with assists by Edwin Rivas and Carlos Benavides. CSUN kept the pressure up throughout the second half and got an insurance goal in the 85th minute from Carlos Gonzalez, who had just entered as a sub in the 84th minute. Gonzalez is a freshman who's only played about 200 minutes all season. His goal came off of a cross by junior right back Chris Smith, who earned his 6th assist of the season. Big West Goalkeeper of the Year Michael Abalos made four saves to earn his 7th clean sheet of the year. The win was also his 13th of the season, giving him 29 for his career and placing him 2nd in school history behind Kevin Guppy. The game also broke CSUN's streak of nine consecutive games that were determined by one goal. Thanks to the asinine method the Big West uses to determine home-field advantage in the conference tournament, the Matadors must venture north to Davis to take on the UC Davis Aggies in the conference title game.
Unless the committee decides it's geographically convenient, I'm afraid that the loser won't get in. The two Big West finalists went into this week ranked #39 and #40, which is usually right on the bubble. Whoever loses in the final will probably end up below #40.
MVC quarterfinals: #5 Drake 2, #4 Evansville 1 #6 Central Arkansas 1, #3 Bradley 0 UCA faces fellow associate member SIU Edwardsville with Drake playing #1 Creighton on Friday.
I hope not. The Big West is the #6 conference. Top two teams have reached the finals. Would be a real shame if only one of them goes.
I think CSUN has a better shot at an at-large. gauchodan has CSUN at #30 in the RPI now and UC Davis at #41.
Loyola outplayed UIC that has been suffering with an inexperienced coach who is over his head. And not eveybody in Chicago is for Obama, especially the ones that make lots of money, haha.
SLU takes a 2-1 lead with 4 mins to play. Filthy no look pass from David Graydon in the midfield down the sideline to Alex Swetin. Then a one touch pass to a sliding Kingsley Bryce for the goal
And SLU puts away a breakaway with 1 minute left. 3-1. #2 SLU moves on to face the winner of #3 Xavier and #6 Dayton tomorrow.
I know it's a tournament but it's kinda silly that Xavier and Dayton, which are about an hour apart, have to go to North Carolina to play a game! As for SLU, I saw that big Robbie Kristo had a goal and an assist. He's a had a strong So. season (10 and 5) and is looking less likely to stick around all four-years. A lot of coaches will look at his size (6-4) and think he could help them pretty soon.
CSUN deserves to be in either way, but they still have a lot to play for. A win probably gives them a home game against the WCC champion. A loss sends them on the road to Washington, SMU or Tulsa.
Elon up 1-0 on Georgia Southern in the 2nd half of a SoCon semi. If you have to ask who scored, you haven't been following these threads.
Elon won 1-0. UNLV is at it again, down 4-1 to Air Force, and it's only halftime. Salvador Bernal has UNLV's goal, wonder if he might find a better program where he could transfer.