Panthers Men's Soccer Champs With Shutout Win

The Greenville University men's soccer team ended a streak of three straight top-seeded tournament champions, winning 1-0 as the #2 seed of the 2022 St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Greenville captures its 4th SLIAC title, the first since 2011, after defeating the host and top-seeded Webster University on Saturday night.

The game was closely played for all 90 minutes with Webster having the slight edge in shots 18-17 and each team having six corner kicks. After the first five minutes of the game went without a shot Greenville was able to put some extended pressure on the Gorloks. The first shot of the game was off the foot of Andres Garcia, going high. Just two minutes later Grabiel Sule put the first shot on net in the game. The Panthers had four more shots, including two on net, over the next 12 minutes.

Webster's first shot finally came when Aamahn Murvin finally reached the box with the ball but had his shot blocked. The Gorloks were unable to control the ball off the ensuing corner as it was headed out wide by a Panther defender. 

A foul deep in Gorlok territory gave the Panthers a free kick, setting up a set piece. Andres Garcia played the ball into the box where Jaime Torres played the ball over to Rafael Navas who sent the ball inside the left post off his head for the goal. 

The two-time defending champion Webster would not go away easily, outshooting the Panthers in the final 45-minutes including getting the last four shots of the game. Their best chance came with five minutes left when Robby Percival sent a line drive shot from 30-yards out on a break that went off the top bar. With 30-seconds left Percival sent another ball on net that was punched out by the Panther keeper Hiram Cruz. The last attempt for the Gorloks came with 12-seconds left when Murvin put a header on net that was kept out by the Panther defenders. 

Cruz recorded seven saves in the shutout win, marking the first shutout in the championship game since 2012. Greenville extends its current shutout streak to six games. Greenville earns the SLIAC automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Men's Soccer National Tournament. 

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