BETHANY, Okla.—The 2022 GAC/MIAA Men's Soccer Championships are set to get underway as for the second-straight season, Southern Nazarene enters the tournament as the No. 1 overall seed after winning the regular season title.
The tournament field plays out just like last season. Southern Nazarene (10-5-3, 8-2-2) holds the No. 1 seed, and like last season will face fourth seeded Northeastern State (9-5-3, 6-4-2). The Crimson Storm will hope for revenge from last season when the Riverhawks upset SNU 3-0 in the semi-finals match.
The other semi-finals match is also the same as last season, but with flipped seeds. This year, Rogers State (9-3-6, 7-1-4) earned the No. 2 seed, finishing just one point behind the Storm. Last season's tournament champions, Fort Hays State comes in as the No. 3 seed. They held the top seed for much of the year, but faltered down the stretch, scoring just two goals in their final six matches of the regular season.
Southern Nazarene struggled against Fort Hays this season, dropping both matches. They defeated Rogers State 2-0 at home and tied the Hillcats early in the year in Claremore.
SNU will come into the tournament with an explosive offense that scored 9 goals in their final two matches, including a 4-nil defeat of Northeastern State in conference-title clinching win in the season finale. They are led by elite goal-scorer, Unaiz Shajani, who finished second in the GAC with 13 goals. Bruno Ferreira added 5 goals and 8 assists for the Crimson Storm.
Defensively, the Storm have been difficult to penetrate down the stretch of the season. In their final 8 games, SNU has only allowed multiple goals once and have earned two clean sheets. The Storm are led defensively by Alvaro Sanchez and Eric Romero, two of the top defenders in the conference.
SNU defeated Northeastern twice this season. They earned a hard-fought 3-2 win on the road back on October 8th, and closed the season at home with a 4-nil win to secure their second-straight conference title.
The Crimson Storm will hope to make it three straight against the Riverhawks on Thursday. Kickoff is currently set for 6 p.m. following the Rogers State-Fort Hays State matchup at 3 p.m. The winners of the semi-finals matches will go on to meet each other for the championship on Sunday at 1 p.m. The GAC/MIAA tournament winner receives an automatic bid to the national tournament.
The two semi-finals matches will be streamed on the SNU Athletics YouTube page, while the GAC Network will provide coverage for Sunday's championship game.
To find out more about the tournament, visit the GAC Tournament Page.
