UT Dallas men’s soccer wraps up playoff berth with wins

by PegNews wire

The UTD men's soccer team insured itself of a sixth straight post-season appearance and improved to 11-3-2 overall and 8-1-2 in the American Southwest Conference race with one-sided wins over Texas Lutheran University and Schreiner University.

The 4-1 win over TLU and 6-0 blanking of Schreiner clinched the playoff spot and moved the Comets to within a point of first-place University of the Ozarks with just two regular season games left. UTD and Ozarks both travel to East Texas Baptist and LeTourneau next weekend with a chance to host the annual ASC Championship Tournament. A first or second place finish earns the team a first-round bye in the tournament.

Mississippi College, which had been the conference front-runner, was upset Saturday by Mary Hardin-Baylor and slipped back into a tie for third place.

Kevin White and Cory Roth each had a score and an assist in both weekend wins.

UTD 4, TX. LUTHERAN 1

UTD jumped on the Bulldogs quickly Friday, scoring just 5:27 into the game when Kevin White found Zac Lindley on a hard cross in front of the net. White then scored the fourth goal for the Comets just 17 minutes into the second period to cap the scoring run that included goals by Mihai Cotet and Cory Roth. Roth assisted on on White's goal.

TLU, which was outshot 9-2 with shots on goal, finally put the ball in the net late in the game when a corner kick header from Morgan Parker slipped through Jake Brandon's hands. Brandon had just two save opportunities the entire game.

UTD 6, SCHREINER 0

The nightmare season continued for Schreiner (2-12-1, 1-10-1), last year's ASC regular season champions, as UTD broke open a tight game in the second half with three goals in a 4:55 span. White, who had scored the game's second goal on a penalty kick, found Mazi Rabiee to make it 3-0 at the 61:08 mark, then Roth scored twice within :45 seconds to put the game out of reach. Freshman Austin Estrada got UTD's final goal with just :27 left in the match.

The two teams were fairly even on shots in the first half, but UTD ran out to a 19-4 advantage after halftime, emptying the benches for both teams.

Source: UTD