The Genesee Community College Men’s Soccer Team will play for the NJCAA National Championship on Sunday, after beating Anoka-Ramsey Community College (Minn.) 3-0 in the semifinals Friday afternoon at Herkimer County Community College.
The Cougars struck early on in the snow-filled match, when Theo Stamatopolous (Norwich, England) sent a cross to Jonny Bonner (Buncrana, Ireland) that Bonner buried into the back of the net during the second minute of play. GCC would threaten a couple of more times during the first half, but could not increase their lead.
The Genesee defense, missing Jack West (Notts, England) and Declan Brennan (Dublin, Ireland) due to injury, stayed solid, thanks in part to defender Ryan Fredal (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) and goalkeeper Joe Agerskow (East Yorkshire, England). Agerskow aggressively came out of the net to make two big saves in the later part of the first half to keep the Rams off the board. GCC took a 1-0 lead into halftime.
(Genesee CC celebrates Jonny Bonner's first half goal)
In the second half, the Cougars missed a scoring opportunity about four minutes in when Dom Francis (Huddersfield, England) found an open net with the goalkeeper out of position, but his shot was saved by a defender who stepped in. Genesee was able to score when Peter Keegan (Dublin, Ireland) sent a blast from just outside the box past the Rams' goalkeeper to give the Cougars a 2-0 lead with 30 minutes to play. Just four minutes later, Sean Brettell (Welwyn Garden City, England) scored his second goal of the national tournament by sending a header off of a Josh Gray (Norwich, England) free kick into the net, giving GCC the 3-0 lead.
The lead was kept safe by Agerskow who made a breakaway save with 18 minutes to play and followed it with a diving save off of a corner kick less than a minute later.
Genesee controlled possession for the remainder of the second half and ended Anoka-Ramsey’s season with the 3-0 win.
Genesee advances to the NJCAA National Championship game and will take on Herkimer County Community College which defeated Nassau Community College 5-0 on Friday. It will be a rematch of an Oct. 18th meeting in which GCC beat Herkimer, then ranked number one in the country, 1-0. The match will be played on Sunday at noon on the Herkimer campus.
Is only one player on the
Is only one player on the GCCC Cougars Soccer Team American, let alone from the area? I congratulate their achievement but it's a little disheartening when most of the names listed on the score sheet is from England and Ireland. Good job Mates!