PSU Men’s Soccer team exploited every phase of the game, destroying West Conn., 6-0 in their quarterfinal match this past Sat., Nov. 1 at Panther Field.
Semir Mehmedovic netted himself a hat trick, contributing 3 goals during the mach up. Contributing to the offensive onslaught was Dre Cabral, Greg Blanchette and Dimitrios Kapotis. Mehmedovic added his second hat trick of the season and brought his career total to an impressive 4. Gareth Stephens, Tim Allan and Tommy Schrey all added assists to the game who several of the PSU goalkeepers made good days for themselves by not allowing any goals on only 5 shots on net by West Conn.
Tyler Shute, Nick Giusto and Dan Michalowski played impressive games in net in what could be one of their last games. “We played a solid all around game. Everyone was pumped for the game and it paid off. The young guys played a great game off the bench as well,” said Tyler Shute, “We need to finish our scoring opportunities. The boys did a great job on Monday and we need to keep that up.”
Mehmedovic, who is the team leader with 11 goals and nine assists this season and is continuing his climb up PSU’s all-time scoring list. He now shares the sixth spot with 27 goals and he is tied for fifth with 21 assists and is again in the sixth spot with 75 points.
After the impressive win this week PSU moves on to the semi-finals in a rematch with number 1 seed University of Southern Maine who is deserving of their number one ranking. They have a collective 12-7-1 record with a 6-1 record in LEC play. They average 2 goals a game and have outscored opponents 40-25 which includes two games where they won 5-0. Their leading scorer has scored 13 goals in 20 games and their statistics show that everyone on the team can score on help, and all of their goalies are capable of preventing scores as they have all seen considerable time in the net.
In their last meeting PSU fell to USM by getting blanked 2-0, but the team is more focused and learn from their mistakes. “USM is a good team but if we play the way we did Monday, no one can beat us,” said Shute. The Panthers out-shot the Huskies 9-6 but USM keeper David Kreps played lights out and did not allow anything past him on that particular day. USM’s only league loss came in late Oct. against East Conn. in a tough 3-4 loss at East Conn.