Miami Gardens, Fla. - In 2-Seed Men's Soccer's (10-3-3 overall, 5-0-3 Sun) third consecutive Sun Conference Tournament Semifinals matchup against 3-Seed SCAD (5-10-3 overall, 4-1-3 Sun), the Bobcats came out victorious, 4-0.
The Bobcats got on the board in the 13th minute when Julien Laborde sent a long pass down the field, and Angelo Bernardes was able to beat a defender and the goalkeeper to give the Bobcats the early lead. The first half remained scoreless, with St. Thomas outshooting SCAD 9-2 and leading on the scoreboard 1-0.
After having double-digit corner kicks with not many shot attempts off the corner kick, the Bobcats got a quality attempt in the 71st minute when Julian Ramirez was able to head a deflection in to give St. Thomas the 2-0 lead. St. Thomas got some late insurance goals, as in the 88th minute, the Laborde-to-Bernardes connection continued. Laborde had a great move to get past a defender, which was then passed to Bernardes, who picked up his second goal of the night. Laborde also earned himself a goal in the 89th minute, when he took a pass from Maksym Osadchyi to find the net on a long-range shot, giving the Bobcats their fourth goal of the night.
Bernardes scored two goals on the night, and Laborde scored a goal and had two assists. Bernardes has now scored six career playoff goals as a Bobcat, which have all taken place in The Sun Conference Tournament. Bernardes also has eight career goals against SCAD.
The Bobcats outshot the Bees, 22-7. St. Thomas also had a large lead in the corner kick department, as they had 16 corner kicks to SCAD's three.
Matias Fuentes was in goal for the Bobcats, as he made three saves in his fourth shutout of the season. Three Bobcat defenders, Manuel Dominguez, Yanik Keller, and Ramirez, played all 90 minutes in the shutout.
With the win, the Bobcats will advance to The Sun Conference Tournament Finals. They will play in West Palm Beach against Keiser on Wednesday, November 11. The game is scheduled to start at 1:30 pm.
