Bobcats Advance to CAC Semi-finals

Senior Pablo Torrano

CAC playoffs began Saturday afternoon and we had to make a return trip to the University of Mary Washington.  The game was very similar to the first match as both teams were pretty evenly matched, but this time were able to come away with the narrow 1-0 victory and advance to the CAC semi-finals on Wednesday.

The first half was even as both teams recorded just three shots a piece.  The second half was a little more open as both teams pushed for the go ahead goal.  Pablo Torrano got the game winner early in the 2nd half when he took a feed from Chris Jones that split the defenders and put him in on goal.  Torrano calmly placed the ball to the side of the charging UMW keeper.  Both teams would create 2 or 3 clear scoring opportunities, but would be unable to capitalize on them.

As the game winded down Mary Washington pushed for the equalizer and we pushed for the insurance goal to put the game away.  It would lead to an exciting finish as both teams left it all on the field and in the closing seconds we would clear two rebounds off the goal line to preserve the win and move on to the next round.

Freshman keeper Hassan Mostafa had a very strong game in goal and did a great job of dealing with the flighted balls and the dangerous UMW set pieces.  This was a big win for us as it was a road win on grass against a very good team.  Hopefully the confidence will carry over to the semi-finals on Wednesday.

The semi-finals are set for Wednesday afternoon at 2pm at Salisbury.  Salisbury enters the game with a 16-2 record and the top seed in the playoffs.