Morrissey hits milestone as RedStorm men rout Brescia

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - It was a rather mundane lopsided win for the University of Rio Grande men's soccer team over Brescia University on Saturday afternoon that, as things turned out, proved to be quite notable.
     The RedStorm dominated the Bearcats from start to finish in a 6-1 River States Conference triumph at Evan E. Davis Field, but the victory - with little fanfare - turned out to be a milestone in the career of veteran head coach Scott Morrissey.
     Morrissey, who is in his 36th season at the helm of the Rio program, became the NAIA's all-time winningest men's soccer coach with his 563rd victory. He surpassed the previous record of 562 career wins set by Ray Wells over the course of his 52 seasons on the sideline at both Georgia Southern and Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) College.
     The record is one that Morrissey stands to hold for quite some time. The next highest win total among active coaches belongs to Jim Rickard of The Master's (Calif.), who currently is 10th on the overall list with 373 career victories.
     Morrissey's RedStorm never trailed on Saturday, scoring just under 11-1/2 minutes into the match en route to a 3-0 halftime advantage.
     Senior Joe McInnes (Airdrie, Scotland) and freshman David Palade (Constanta, Romania) both scored a pair of goals for Rio in the winning effort, while freshman Felipe Braga (Presidente Prudente, Brazil) had a goal and an assist and freshman Giorgos Mavris (Larnaca, Cyprus) was credited with two assists.
     The RedStorm outshot their guests overall by a 33-3 cushion, including a 20-2 edge in shots on frame. The hosts also were responsible for all 10 of the corner kick opportunities in the contest.
     McInnes scored off an assist by Braga with 11:26 gone from the first half clock before scoring again thanks to an assist by Mavris with 13:23 remaining in the half.
     Palade closed out the first half scoring with 4:55 left before the intermission off of a touch by sophomore Jevon Shuriah (Toll Gate, Jamaica).
     Rio Grande tacked on two more scores within a minute of each other, just over 15-1/2 minutes into the second half.
     Senior Diego Martinez (Santiago, Chile) scored off of an assist by Mavris before Braga found the back of the net off of a touch by junior Marti Puigsegur Calvo (Barcelona, Spain) to extend the RedStorm cushion to 5-0.
     Brescia scored its only marker of the contest when Federico Munoz hit paydirt in the 65th minute, but Rio got the goal back and closed out the scoring when Palade scored off an assist by freshman Lucca Schmidt (Taubaté, Brazil) with 8:15 left to play.
     Senior Matheus de Campos (Brasilia, Brazil) got the win in goal for the RedStorm, recording one save in the process.
     Pau Gelabert started in net for the Bearcats and had six saves, while Guillermo Basilis played the entire second half and had eight stops.
     Rio Grande is scheduled to return to action on Thursday night when it travels to Indiana University-Columbus for a 7 p.m. kickoff.