Following a winning record of 11-5-2 (5-3-1 conference), Gordon College Men's Soccer grabbed the No. 4 spot in the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) postseason tournament. The Fighting Scots secured their bid to the Championship game after beating both of their postseason opponents by identical scores of 3-2. The Scots' first matchup in the Quarterfinals was against the No. 5 seed-Western New England where both teams ping-ponged back and forth, neither holding their lead for long. Going into the second half with a tie score of 2-2,
Chase Gwynn netted his 17th goal of the 2021 season to lock in the Scots' trip to the Semifinals to face top-seeded Endicott College. At Endicott, the Fighting Scots pulled off a major upset by defeating the No. 1 Gulls, 3-2 after a late rally in the second half thanks to a game-winner skillfully placed past Endicott's keeper by
Casey Torres. After the underdog Scots bested the Gulls, they secured their bid to the Championship game against No. 3-seed Seahawks of Salve Regina in Newport Rhode Island on Saturday, November 6 with the first whistle to be blown at 1 p.m.
The Seahawks had a slightly easier path to this year's CCC Finals. First, Salve destroyed the No. 6 seed- Curry College, with a dominant score of 6-1 after a major breakthrough in the second half, scoring four goals within the first 23 minutes of play. After their commanding win, the Seahawks battled the No. 2 Hawks of Roger Williams in Bristol, Rhode Island where Salve shutout the Hawks in a 3-0 victory to officially send them to the Conference Championship.
In their regular season matchup on October 16, both teams were at a standstill following a scoreless first half. The Scots came back to overpower the Seahawks 3-0 after a second half surge where Gordon scored two goals within two minutes of the second.
Stacked with many All-Conference honorees, the Fighting Scots will be led by
Chase Gwynn,
Luckson Dambo,
Casey Torres,
Dayton Crocker, and
Brody Veleber who each secured spots on the All-CCC team. Gwynn, Dambo, and Torres were named to the First Team, while Crocker and Veleber earned a spot on the Third Team. For the Scots, Gwynn has been unstoppable throughout the 2021 season and continues to be a menace to every team he faces. The graduate student has a whopping total of 19 goals this season, four of which were in postseason play, making up two thirds of the Fighting Scots' total playoff action goals and spearheading their journey to the final round. During the regular season, Gwynn, who collected two CCC Weekly honors for his offensive genius, booked a conference high 15 goals, including five game-winners, and dished out three assists for a staggering 33 points which also led the CCC.
Captaining the midfield, Dambo registered a career-high four assists, two of which came in conference play. The senior also knocked in a goal on the offensive end and helped the defense only allow a CCC best 16 goals in 16 games played. Torres anchored the backfield for the blue and white, holding their opponents to one goal eight times and scoreless four times. The defenseman also put up one goal and one assist on the stat sheet for his CCC inaugural season. In the semifinal round of tournament play, Torres unleashed his first game-winning goal against the Gulls of Endicott College after finishing off a corner kick to lead the Scots to the Finals.
After a stellar defensive season for the Fighting Scots, Crocker and Veleber more than earned their Third Team selections. Junior-transfer Crocker started in all 16 regular-season contests totaling 1199 minutes keeping their opponents' offense at bay, meanwhile senior keeper Veleber was in the net for 1390:38 minutes with a league best 0.97 goals against average. Veleber recorded a total of nine saves so far in the CCC playoffs, amounting to an impressive .691 postseason save percentage against the top teams in the conference.
The Seahawks will be fronted by
Casey Kelly who was recently honored as defensive player of the year for the second time, holding down Salve's back half of the field, while also being named CCC Scholar-Athlete for his efforts in the classroom. The graduate student and two-year captain has started in all 20 games for the Seahawks this season while holding his competitors to an average of 1.05 goals per game. Additionally, Salve will be led by the six Seahawks who earned spots on the CCC All-Conference team. These honorees include
Alessandro Oggiano and Kelly who were honored as First Team selections,
Jordan Borges,
Rich Ventura, and
James Davies who were named to the Second Team, and lastly
Jacob Guerra who landed himself on the Third Team. So far this postseason, graduate student Guerra has been a huge offensive threat for the Seahawks in post-season play as the midfielder has scored four goals in playoff action alone.
Beyond The Box Score
- The Fighting Scots have earned a token to the Finals eight times since the start of the 21st century.
- Since the earliest records in 1989, the Scots have racked up six Championship titles, with the earliest in 1990 (against New England College), and the most recent being in 2018 when the Scots hosted Roger Williams, winning it all 1-0 in overtime.
- The Scots' overall championship game record is 6-6 since 1989.
- The Seahawks' most recent visit to the finals was in 2019 when they took home the trophy after defeating Endicott 3-2 in double overtime.
- The last time the Fighting Scots and Seahawks have met in the finals was in 1993 when Salve bested the Scots.
