Young's Goal in 99th Minute Lifts 'Lopes to Victory

Thursday, November 3

St. George, UT

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

0 (OT)

Dixie State

Junior forward Saeed Robinson assisted on the game-winner.

11/3/2011 9:23:00 PM | Men's Soccer

By: Joel Horn

Senior midfielder Cordero Young (Orlando, FL, Central Florida Christian Academy, Tyler Junior College), playing in his final regular-season game, scored in the 99th minute to give the Grand Canyon University men's soccer team a 1-0 overtime win over Dixie State College in a Pacific West Conference contest tonight at Hansen Stadium in St. George, Utah.

The Antelopes, ranked No. 4 in the West Region in both the official NCAA Division-II poll and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America vote, improved to 13-4-1 overall, 9-2-1 in the PacWest.

Head Coach Petar Draksin now has 191 victories in his storied career. His teams have lost only nine total regular-season games over the past three seasons.

The Red Storm, who upset GCU 1-0 on Sept. 17 in Phoenix, fell to 8-7-2, 7-4-0.

Hawai'i Pacific (14-4-0, 10-2-0) clinched at least a co-championship in the PacWest by beating BYU-Hawai'i 3-0 yesterday in Laie. The only team that could tie the Sea Warriors for the title is California Baptist (12-5, 9-2), which has one game left, against Dixie State on Saturday in Riverside, Calif.

The PacWest does not have an automatic qualifier for men's soccer, as it does for women. Only the top four teams in each region in the final NCAA poll are invited to the NCAA tournament. Eight from each region qualify on the women's side.

Based upon their strength of schedule and perfect record against sub-.500 teams, the 'Lopes could make the tournament. A lot depends on how the teams ranked behind them in the NCAA poll, No. 5 Cal State L.A., No. 6 Cal State Dominguez Hills and No. 7 Cal State Stanislaus, fare in this weekend's California Collegiate Athletic Conference Soccer Championships in Turlock, Calif.

Chico State (11-3-2 in the CCAA) plays Cal State Dominguez Hills (10-4-2) and Cal State L.A. (10-1-5) faces Cal State Stanislaus (9-5-2) tomorrow. Chico State won the North Division and Cal State Stanislaus finished second, while Cal State L.A. captured the South Division crown and Cal State Dominguez Hills (13-4-0) was second.

Tonight's victory over the PacWest's fourth-place team certainly won't hurt GCU's case for the NCAA tournament.

Young scored off a pass from the left side of the field from junior forward Saeed Robinson (Portmore, Jamaica, Wolmers Boys School, Western Texas College). He shot the ball into the upper-right corner of the net. It was his seventh goal and third game-winning goal of the season.

The 'Lopes had advantages of 19-13 in shots, 10-2 in shots on goal and 9-2 in saves.

GCU senior goalkeeper Adam Garcia (Avondale, AZ, Westview, Phoenix College, Gardner-Webb University) recorded two saves while his counterpart, sophomore Tyler Walters, made nine.

A whopping nine yellow cards were shown, six of them to the 'Lopes.

One red card also was issued.

The 2011 PacWest all-conference teams will be announced next week, and Robinson, senior midfielder Mitchell Garcia (Avondale, AZ, Agua Fria, Phoenix College) and senior defender Nick Sykes (Boise, ID, Mountain View) should be locks for the first team. Several other GCU players should receive strong consideration, as should Draksin for conference Coach of the Year.

He has been forced to play this entire season without two-time First-Team All-America forward Kyle Ciliento (Phoenix, AZ, Pinnacle, Saint Mary’s College of California), a two-time PacWest Player of the year who tore the ACL in his left knee in a spring exhibition game and is redshirting this season. He has two years of eligibility remaining and already has 50 career goals, the second most in school history and just five fewer than the record of 55 set by Manoel Coelho in 1997-99. His 111 career points rank second behind Coelho's 131.

Draksin also has had to replace two-time PacWest Goalkeeper of the Year and First-Team All-PacWest selection Ben Paneccasio (Sydney, Australia, Rosebank College, Tyler Junior College), and play several players in positions that are different than they played last season and are not their natural posiions.

GCU 1, Dixie State 0 (OT)

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