School Name Goes Here

Scranton, PA – Gwynedd-Mercy College’s Chris Playford scored a pair of goals and the Griffins held off a furious late second half rally by Marywood University to pick up a 2-1 win in the first round of the Colonial States Athletic Conference men’s soccer playoffs on Tuesday evening. Gwynedd-Mercy, now 8-9-3 on the season, advances to the CSAC semifinals where they will take on top-seeded Cabrini College.

Fifth-seeded Gwynedd-Mercy took a 1-0 lead just 1:44 into Tuesday evening’s contest when Playford ran onto a ball behind the Marywood defense and finished low to the far post on a breakaway to give the Griffins the early lead. 

The fourth-seeded Pacers looked to equalize just minutes later, but Gwynedd-Mercy goalkeeper Mike Leonard stopped Marywood’s leading scorer Brett Megee (Easton, PA) on a breakaway. Leonard would later deny the Pacers’ Brandon Ritter (Wantage, NJ) from close range to help the visiting Griffins hold a 1-0 halftime lead despite being out-shot 9-3 by Marywood in the opening 45 minutes of play. 

Just over five minutes into the second half, Playford extended Gwynedd-Mercy’s lead to 2-0 by catching Marywood goalkeeper Jared El Gayeh off his line and beating him with a long chip shot from the wing. 

Despite the two-goal deficit, the Pacers continue to pressure the Griffins and with just under 20 minutes to play, William Gordon (Harrisburg, PA) played a thru-ball to Anthony Kapp (Duncannon, PA) who finished nicely to the far post to draw Marywood back within a single goal.

Over the final 19-plus minutes, Marywood peppered Leonard and the Griffins defense with six shots and numerous dangerous restarts, but to no avail as Gwynedd-Mercy held to avenge a 2-1 double-overtime, regular season loss to the Pacers.

Marywood finished the game with a 19-7 advantage in shots for the game and also held a 4-1 edge in corner kicks.

Leonard finished the evening with eight saves to pick up the win for the Griffins while El Gayeh (Baldwin, NY), currently ranked 23^rd in the nation in goals against average, made two stop in the loss for the Pacers.