Rio blanks Pioneers, claims share of RSC title

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - The University of Rio Grande men's soccer team did what it needed to do.
     Now head coach Scott Morrissey's club must sit and wait to find out whether or not it will claim an outright River States Conference regular season championship and earn home-field advantage throughout the post-season conference tournament or whether it shares the title and is forced to rely on a tiebreaker to determine its seed for the league tourney.
     The RedStorm netted an early goal and a pair of late scores to defeat rival Point Park University, 3-0, Thursday night, at Evan E. Davis Field.
     Rio Grande, ranked no. 6 in the latest NAIA coaches' Top 25 poll, finished its regular season schedule at 12-1-2 overall and 9-0-1 in league play.
     The victory gives the RedStorm no less than a share of the league's regular season championship, but seeding for the conference tournament remains to be determined based on the outcome of Saturday's game between West Virginia University-Tech and St. Mary-of-the-Woods College.
     In order for Rio to claim the No. 1 seed and home-field advantage throughout the tourney, WVU-Tech would need to either tie or lose to the Pomeroys or concede at least one goal in a win.
     The RedStorm, whose RSC tie came against WVU-Tech, could also claim the No. 1 seed if the Golden Bears post a shutout win, but score two goals or less in doing so.
     Rio Grande scored what proved to be the game-winning goal just under 10 minutes into Thursday night's contest when freshman Rafael Kawata (Sao Paulo, Brazil) found the back of the net with a nifty back-tap of a cross from the left corner by senior Joe McInnes (Airdrie, Scotland).
     The 1-0 led held intact until senior Benjamin Cam Orellana (Santiago, Chile) scored off of graduate senior Julian Fally's (Vienna, Austria) cross from the right side to the center of the 18-yard box with 6:44 left to play, pushing the lead to 2-0.
     Freshman Tommy Munoz Salazar (San Jose, Costa Rica) set the final score with a goal off a touch by McInnes with only 35 seconds remaining.
     Rio Grande finished with a 17-8 edge in shots overall, including an 8-1 advantage after halftime.
     The RedStorm also had a 6-4 cushion in shots on goal and enjoyed seven of the nine corner kick opportunities in the match.
     Graduate senior Matheus de Campos (Brasilia, Brazil) recorded four saves in a clean sheet effort for Rio.
     Eduard Garcia had three stops in a losing cause for Point Park, which dropped to 8-5-3 overall and 5-3-1 against RSC foes.
     Rio Grande will return to play against a still to be determined opponent in the quarterfinal round of the RSC Championship on Saturday, Nov. 4, at 2 p.m., at Evan E. Davis Field.