OKLAHOMA CITY – Top-seeded No. 9 MACU Men's Soccer put together a thoroughly dominant offensive and defensive performance while cruising to a 3-0 victory over No. 5 seed Wayland Baptist at the Dill Soccer Field on Saturday night to advance to its fifth consecutive Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament title game.

SCORING SUMMARY 

·        1st Half – MACU – 24:04 – Goal: Francois Geris-Rey (1) Assist: Josh Macklin – MACU 1, WBU 0 

·        2nd Half – MACU – 74:09 – Goal: Akira Ono (2) Assist:  Francois Geris-Rey, Tony Ngombi – MACU 2, WBU 0 

·        2nd Half – MACU – 78:50 – Goal: Akira Ono (3) Assist: Lucas Catosso – MACU 3, WBU 0 

MATCH SUMMARY 

·        First Half

o   Both teams saw great opportunities to score but nothing to show for it in the first 20 minutes of the half with Wayland Baptist (8-7-4) having a pair of shots by Vito Zatikyan (7:22) and Francis Motsi (14:30) both just missing high from the middle pitch about 25 yards out.  

o   Mid-America Christian (14-1-4) was able to counter with two very strong attacks in the 20th minute when Francois Geris-Rey took a head on shot off a Pioneer deflection that WBU goalie Alex Neri (7-6-3) snared. About 30 seconds later, Wayland kicked it out of bounds allowing an Evangel throw in that set up Geris-Rey to pass it forward to the Wayland box allowing Tony Ngombi to put a shot on goal, but Neri laid out to his left to prevent a MACU score.  

o   It was shortly after in the 25th minute when Geris-Rey connected on the opening goal with his left boot from the left pitch about 25 yards out that curled into the right side of the WBU net on the feed from Josh Macklin. 

·        Second Half 

o   The Pioneers had a prime opportunity to knot things up at 1-1 in the 66th minute with Elijah Gonzalez catching goalkeeper Claudio Fuentealba (12-1-3) off-guard off a lackadaisical giveaway with a lot of space, but was unable to put a shot on-goal missing wide to the left.   

o   In the 74th minute, MACU extended its lead to 2-0 on Akira Ono's second goal of the season on a shot from the middle pitch about 10 yards out that was relayed from the right side by Francois Geris-Rey and Tony Ngombi.  

o   MACU was able to capitalize again with Ono, who struck again for his first career brace in the 78th minute from the left side that pierced the bottom right corner of the Pioneers net with Lucas Catosso picking up his second assist of his junior campaign. 

MATCH NOTES 

·        Mid-America Christian was able to out-shoot Wayland Baptist by a wide margin 21-5 with a 9-1 shots-on-goal ratio.  

·        Midfielder Francois Geris-Rey connected for his first goal of his senior season on the opener and turned in his third assist of the year on Ono's second goal in the 78th minute. Geris-Rey narrowly missed a brace with two other shots on goal with one hitting off the crossbar in the 77th minute.  

·        Wayland Baptist had just the one shot on goal in the 49th minute that was a soft liner directly to the hands of Claudio Fuentealba.  

·        Akira Ono had a career night coming into the match with just one goal in 25 games. His two-score performance was the second brace by an Evangel this season, with the other being Enzo Nogue in the 4-0 win at Nelson on Oct. 26. 

·        Claudio Fuentealba picked up his 12^th win of the season in-goal as well as his third combined shutout along with Alvaro Morera. The victory moved him into a tie for the fifth-most wins in a season in the NAIA Era (2007-present).

·        MACU was able to win its 10th consecutive match against WBU dating back to Sept. 29, 2018 and move to 13-8 all-time against the Pioneers.

·        With the victory, Mid-America Christian will be competing for its fifth-straight SAC Tournament title. In the 14 tourney games they've played so far during the run, MACU has pitched 11 shutouts and have only conceded one goal in the other three contests.

HEAD COACH AARON HOXIE'S ANALYSIS 

·        "Comprehensive victory today against a determined WBU team. It was an excellent performance from everyone who played.  It wasn't just the win, but it was how we won that we should be proud of.  We represented MACU the right way tonight." 

·        "It has been a long journey, internally difficult at times, yet the boys have done a great job at working together with new ideas to accomplish a goal.  We are within reach of our second objective and on our way to the program's fifth final in a row.  I am very proud of them." 

UP NEXT 

·        Mid-America Christian will host crosstown rival No. 3 seed Oklahoma City in the SAC Championship match on Tuesday, Nov. 12 with kickoff slated for 5:30 p.m. at the Dill Soccer Field.