Soccer Men Beat St. Gregory’s; On to SAC Semis

In the most physical game of the season, the USAO men’s soccer team got balanced scoring and moved past St. Gregory’s 3-1 Saturday in the first round of the Sooner Athletic conference tournament.

With the two-goal win, the third-seeded Drovers improve to 11-7-1 overall, and will host No. 5-seed Oklahoma Christian at 2 p.m. Tuesday in the SAC semifinals. The other semifinal game, also set for 2 p.m., features top seeded Southern Nazarene against Oklahoma Baptist in Bethany.

On Saturday, USAO quickly opened a lead with two goals within about seven minutes of each other. Senior Nene Coulibally connected on a penalty kick in the 28^th minute for his ninth goal of the season. Senior Marcus Williams scored his second goal of the season in the 35^th minute on a header off a re-directed pass from sophomores Adam Day and Tom Hubbard.

St. Gregory’s cut the lead to 2-1 when Matias Menis scored on a penalty kick in the 41^st minute. Sophomore Augustine Osese put the game away in the 67^th minute, with his third goal of the season on a cross pass from Hubbard just inside the right post.

USAO junior goalkeeper Elliott Ballmann collected five saves and allowed one goal in the 3-1 win. St. Gregory’s Robert McKnight finished with four saves and surrendered three goals.

Both teams were whistled for 44 fouls, including 10 cautions and three ejections. Coulibally was ejected from the game in the 36^th minute for what officials called “violent conduct” in a heated dispute with SGU’s Javier Garcia and also led to Garcia’s ejection.

Also ejected from the game was SGU’s Juan Goycoechea in the 68^th minute. Other Drovers receiving yellow (caution) cards included junior Keith Ooten, Ballmann, senior Joe Uhl, Williams, Day and freshman Jonathan Oman. St. Gregory’s