Cortland Sports Information Department
CORTLAND, N.Y. -- The nationally sixth-ranked Cortland men's soccer team opened a 4-0 lead at the half and went on to a 5-2 victory versus Elizabethtown in the second round of the NCAA Div. III Men's Soccer Tournament Sunday night. With the win, seventh-year head coach Steve Axtell earned his 100th career victory (100-34-8), the Red Dragons improved to 17-2-3 and advanced to the third round of the playoffs. The Blue Jays ended their season at 11-5-4 and had their 14-game unbeaten streak (11-0-3) snapped with the setback.
Junior Jake Keller (Wappingers Falls/Roy C. Ketcham) netted a pair of goals in his second straight postseason game for Cortland. Sophomore Nick Pfeiffer (Commack) also tallied two goals. Senior Migell Ormsby (Kingston, Jamaica/DeWitt Clinton) scored a goal, and junior Miguel Tunas (Carmel/North Salem) recorded two assists. Junior goalie Sean Kelly(Coram/Newfirld) made four saves.
Senior Gilbert Waso (Elizabethtown, PA/Mount Cavalry Christian) and freshman Edward Rainey (Sewell, NJ/Washington Township) each scored a goal for Elizabethtown with Rainey's being the first of his career. Seniors Mitchell Gochnauer (Mount Joy, PA/Donegal) and Danny Sullivan (Harleysville, PA/Souderton) collected assists. Senior goalie Brian Gately (Lancaster, PA/Hempfield) made three saves in 87:38 before giving way to senior Andrew McGowan (Downingtown, PA/Downingtown West), who did not face a shot over the final 2:22.
Keller struck for his first goal just 5:06 into the game with a low, hard shot from the left side of the box. In the 18th minute, Ormsby scored his 12th goal of the season when he deliberately shot the ball off the back of a defender and into the goal from a sharp angle. Pfeiffer then notched back-to-back goals exactly three minutes apart to make it a 4-0 game. In the 33rd minute, he cleaned up a loose ball in the box after a corner kick, then scored on a clean header off a corner-kick serve from Tunas in the 36th minute.
Each team wasted little time in scoring to open the second half. Rainey put the Blue Jays on the scoreboard in the 47th minute. Sullivan served a free kick into the box that Gochnauer flicked with a header to an open Rainey, who one-timed a shot past Kelly. Keller answered 65 seconds later with his team-high 18th goal of the season, finishing off a cross from Tunas in the box with a one-touch shot, to put Cortland ahead, 5-1. Waso completed the scoring, converting a penalty kick in the 79th minute for his team-high ninth goal of the season.
