Saturday, November 23, 2019

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – After winning its first GNAC title in 11 years, the Western Washington men’s soccer team fell short, 5-0, in a second-round match at St. Mary’s (Texas) on Saturday.

The Vikings entered the Super Region 4 bracket of the NCAA Division II Men’s Soccer Championship as the No. 6 seed while the Rattlers earned the No. 3 seed. The Rattlers sure enjoyed the comfort of playing in front of their home crowd as they pulled away with a convincing 5-0 victory.

Deni Cresto opened the scoring for St. Mary’s with a goal in the 34th minute that proved to be the game-winner. Nenad Markovic was the star in the match as he scored three consecutive goals to give the Rattlers more insurance. Reis Woolley scored the fifth and final goal for the Rattlers in the 87th minute to secure the victory for St. Mary’s.

Western Washington recorded 10 shots and six shots on goal but was unable to find the net in the 5-0 loss. The Vikings put five shots on goal and limited the Rattlers to just two shots on goal in the first half but the Rattler defense was able to make the necessary stops.

Junior midfielder Georg Cholewa led the Vikings with three shots while junior defender Camron Miller had two shots, both of which were on goal.

With the loss, the 2019 GNAC men’s soccer season comes to a close. The Vikings end their historic season with a 13-5-1 record (10-1-1 GNAC) and captured the GNAC title for just the third time in program history.

Ten Vikings were selected to the All-Conference Team, and four of those players went on to earn Division II Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA) All-West Region honors. Senior defender Jeremiah Lee, the GNAC Defensive Player of the Year, was selected to the All-West Region First Team and will move forward for consideration for the D2CCA All-America Team, which will be announced on Dec. 11.

St. Mary’s will advance to play the winner of No. 2 seed Cal State LA and No. 10 seed Midwestern State.