ATLANTA, GA - Trinity University Men's Soccer (11-2-5) booked its place in Sunday's SAA Championship final on Friday afternoon, beating Berry College (9-6-3) 2-0 at Oglethorpe University to extend its unbeaten run to 15 matches and avenge last year's semifinal exit to the Vikings.
Coming off a first-round bye, the No. 2-seeded Tigers faced a No. 3 Berry side that had been taken through extra time to penalties in its quarterfinal the day before, and Trinity made the most of its fresher legs. The Tigers came out of the blocks flying, with
Thomas Kay (Stansted Mountfitchet, England / Bishop's Stortford) testing Berry goalkeeper Cherry inside the opening four minutes, and it took only until the seventh minute for them to break the deadlock.
Kay, finding himself in an unusually wide position on the right, dug out a phenomenal cross that arched all the way to the back post. There,
Gabriel Romanenko (Los Angeles, California / Geffen Academy) rose highest and nodded the ball back down into a crowded six-yard box, where it dropped perfectly for
Hodge MacDonald (Hertford, England / Haileybury), who simply had to direct it home.
From there, Trinity controlled the rest of the half and created chances to double the lead, most notably two for
Joey Perryman (Flower Mound, Texas / Flower Mound) that could have put the game to bed. Cherry, an All-SAA First Team selection, kept out the first, and the second went begging. By the break, the Tigers had outshot Berry 6-0 and won four corners to none, while
Jayden Schell (Dallas, Texas / Plano) had yet to be tested.
Even so, Trinity went into halftime wary of what had happened the last time these sides met. In October at
Paul McGinlay Field, the Tigers had dominated, taken the lead and outshot the Vikings 16-6, and yet Berry still clawed back a 1-1 draw with a late header from a corner.
This time, it was Trinity that emerged the stronger side after the interval, and once again it needed just seven minutes to strike.
Eduardo Parra (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma / Casady School) nicked the ball off the Berry center-back and drove at goal at speed. He waited for Cherry to come out and close him down, then delicately chipped the ball over the stranded keeper and into the back of the net. The goal, his team-leading 11th of the season, capped a week in which Parra was named First Team All-SAA, and it sent the Trinity bench cascading down the touchline in jubilation, knowing the crucial second goal had arrived.
Berry responded with its best spell of the afternoon, but Schell was equal to it. He got down to deny Carlson just before the hour mark and turned away Epstein's low effort two minutes later. At the other end,
Daniel Urquidi (Round Rock, Texas / Round Rock) forced Cherry into a save of his own in the 66th minute as the Tigers went looking for a third.
As the game wore on, it turned scrappy and stop-start, which played into Berry's hands. The Vikings grew into the contest slightly over the final 20 minutes through a series of free kicks and long throws. Late efforts from Carlson, Whitaker and All-SAA First Team defender Joey Captain all went off target, though, and Berry never seriously troubled a Trinity defense that held firm to the final whistle.
Trinity finished with a 14-8 edge in shots, 5-2 in shots on goal and 5-4 in corners. Schell made two saves to earn the shutout, and Trinity's fourth consecutive clean sheet. The Tigers improve to 3-0-2 all-time against Berry and remain unbeaten in regulation against the Vikings.
Up Next
Trinity plays for the SAA Championship and the conference's automatic NCAA Tournament bid on Sunday, November 8th, at 12:00 p.m. (ET) at Oglethorpe University against No. 4 seed Rhodes College, which knocked out top seed Southwestern University in Friday's other semifinal. The final is a rematch of the regular-season finale just over a week ago, when the Tigers beat the Lynx 2-0 at Saint Mary's Hall.
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