By MAYAN PAZ
Tiger Media Network
In their last regular season game, the Fort Hays State University men’s soccer team needed a win and some help to keep their chances of earning the top seed in this week’s GAC Postseason Tournament. The Tigers did their job, defeating Newman 3-1 on Thursday night. However, Southern Nazarene and Rogers State also won their final matches to remain just one point ahead of FHSU in the final standings.
Against Newman, Marcos German opened the scoring for FHSU (11-3-3, 8-2-2) on a header – the second headed goal of his career. Elias Ovelar Semeniuk and Tadgh Walsh added goals at the start of the second half. Newman scored a consolation goal in the 63rd minute.
“We did pretty well,” German said after the game. “It was nice to score a header, which usually doesn’t happen for me.”
FHSU Head coach Alex Nichols said that while FHSU has been playing well, the team needs to step up their game going into the post-season matches.
“Hats off to each of the players,” Nichols said. “But everybody needs to step up because we still lost three games, we still tied three games, and unfortunately, we haven’t beaten Rogers, and we haven’t beaten SNU, even if we had some very good games in those games. You know, when people look at the box score, they look at the final score.”
The Tigers are the No. 3 seed and will play Rogers State in the GAC tournament semifinals. FHSU is 8-0-2 in its last 10 matches, and hasn’t lost since dropping an Oct. 3 game against Rogers State. FHSU and Rogers played to a 1-1 draw on Nov. 2. FHSU will need to make at least the final of the GAC tournament to have a chance to be considered for the national tournament.
“We put ourselves in a position where we should be extra motivated and excited for these future games, and whoever it may be against Newman, Rogers, or SNU, and we have respect for all of them. And, you know, we just need to come out and play at our best,” Nichols said.
For German, the Tigers are planning on using their recent success to carry momentum into the postseason.
“The mentality of the team is either to win or go home,” German said. “Everyone’s mentally in the right position. Everyone wants to win. So yeah, we haven’t beaten either SNU or Rogers State this year, but this is our third chance to do it. And we are very excited about it.”
Nichols was also optimistic about the team’s chances in the conference tournament.
“I really believe in this team. I believe in these guys as individuals and, most importantly, as a team. So, hopefully, we can really show up at the most important times,” he said.
FHSU and Rogers State will play in the first semifinal at 3 p.m. on Thursday in Bethany, Okla., while Southern Nazarene and Newman will play at 6 p.m. The GAC championship will be at 1 p.m. on Saturday.