Drury Panthers Hosting GLVC Final 4, Come Out!
November 5, 2009 by Ole · Leave a Comment
The Drury men’s soccer program will play host to the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament semifinals and finals for the first time in the program’s history this weekend, as the top-seeded Panthers open play at 7:30 p.m. Friday against fourth-seed Bellarmine at Harrison Stadium.
Second-seeded Northern Kentucky (15-4-1) will meet third-seeded Lewis (13-3-1) at 5 p.m. Friday at Harrison in the opening semifinal match. Friday’s two winners will then square off at noon Sunday at Harrison for the GLVC title.
Drury, ranked third nationally in this week’s NSCAA D-II poll, will bring a record of 18-1-0 into the contest, the best in school history, while Bellarmine is 11-5-1. The Panthers and Knights met on Oct. 11 in Louisville, Ky., where Drury pulled out a 2-1 overtime victory on senior Steve Wilczewski’s goal five minutes into the extra period.
The Panthers advanced to the semifinals with a 1-0, double-overtime victory over eighth-seed Missouri-St. Louis on Sunday at Harrison on junior Micah Whorton’s goal with just over four minutes left in the second extra period. Bellarmine, meanwhile, knocked off fourth-seeded Wisconsin-Parkside 4-0 in Kenosha, Wis., on Sunday, racking up 21 shots to Parkside’s nine and getting goals from four different Knights.
Midfielder Ross Hopkins, a First Team All-GLVC selection, leads the Knights with 29 points on 11 goals and seven assists. Forward Brad Barraclough, a Second Team all-GLVC choice, has nine goals and an assist for 19 points.
DRURY, GLVC TOURNEY NOTES
*Micah Whorton has 14 goals and 12 assists for 40 points to lead the Panthers, while Steve Wilczewski (Glendale) has 14 goals and five assists for 33 points to form the league’s best 1-2 scoring punch.
*Whorton is tied with Josh Keisker (1996, Glendale Falcon’s) for the second most points scored in a single season in DU history, and is just four shy of the 44 scored by Marco Cherisma in 2007. Whorton’s league-leading 12 assists are just one off the single-season record of 13 set last year by current DU junior defender Ben Taylor. Taylor has five assists this season and 19 in his DU career, also a school record.
*Wilczewski now has 32 goals in his DU career, tied for the second-most in the program’s history with Jarrett Wagner (1993-96). He needs five more to match the 37 scored by John Pedroli from 1999-2002.
*Sophomore keeper Stephen Conner (Glendale), the GLVC Defensive Player of the Year, leads the league with a school-record 12 shutouts and a 0.44 goals against average.
*Drury has won five straight matches since suffering its lone loss, a 2-1 setback to Northern Kentucky at Harrison on Oct. 16. The Panthers have outscored their five opponents by a 12-1 count since that setback and 58-8 overall on the season.
*Drury ranks second nationally as a team in goals against average (0.42), third in scoring offense (3.05 goals per game) and fourth in shutout percentage (0.68). Whorton ranks third nationally in assists per game (0.63) and Conner is fourth in goals against average (.439) and eighth in save percentage (.867).
*Bellarmine leads the all-time series with the Panthers by a 3-2 count, including a 2-1 overtime victory over DU in its last visit to Springfield in the 2007 season. Drury won 4-0 in Louisville in 2008.
*The Panthers are in the GLVC semifinals for the second straight year, having lost at Rockhurst 5-4 in penalty kicks last season in Kansas City. The Hawks then went on to claim the GLVC Tourney title.
*The NKU-Lewis regular season matchup went to Lewis by a 1-0 score in Romeoville, Ill. Northern and Lewis were picked 1-2 in the league’s preseason poll, while Drury was fourth and Bellarmine seventh.
*Lewis is ranked No. 17 in this week’s NSCAA Top 25 poll.
