BETHANY, Okla. - The reigning 2021 GAC/MIAA Regular Season Champions keep their title untouched as their 4-0 victory over Northeastern State Saturday night earned them their second consecutive title in the Division II era.
The Storm (10-5-3, 8-2-2) made history last season, winning their first-ever regular season title with the gutsy 1-0 win over Fort Hays State. SNU carried over their dominance into the 2022 season, storming over the Riverhawks (9-5-3, 6-4-2) in clean-sheet fashion to seal Trevor Harmon and his squad their second title, making history once again.
SNU took control of the match early and never looked back. Rennato Ramos found Juan Rodarte in the gap for a quick Storm score just three minutes into the match.
At the 15th minute mark, Kazuki Okazaki dished a pass to Eric Romero who headed in a goal to push SNU up to 2-0 over Northeastern. The Riverhawks intensified their defense for the remainder of the first half, stalling SNU's scoring to keep them at 2-0 going into the break.
SNU proved to be unstoppable in the second half as Bruno Ferreira found Miguel Torrecillas for SNU's third goal of the match. Still without a score, Northeastern worked to answer, but SNU continued to step on the gas as Torrecillas found Unaiz Shajani for a goal, growing the Storm's lead to 4-0 with just under 30 minutes left in the match.
The Storm continued to look for more scores, but their round of shots were all off the mark for the remainder of the second half. Northeastern never gained any momentum with the time remaining, and SNU stormed the field to celebrate their shutout win and their untouched GAC/MIAA Regular Season Championship Title.
Aside from SNU's dominant offensive performance, Storm keeper Michele Barletta kept the Riverhawks off the board as he tallied three saves in the match.
With their win over Northeastern, Southern Nazarene will host the 2022 GAC/MIAA Men's Soccer Championships as the No.1 seed. The Storm will face the No.4 seed Riverhawks again with the winner moving on to the Championship match. The Championship match opponent will feature the winner of No. 2 seed Rogers State and No. 3 seed Fort Hays State. SNU's match with Northeastern State is set for Friday, November 4th at 6 p.m.
