By Justin Zackal
Don’t try to predict the 2019 Presidents’ Athletic Conference Men’s Soccer Championship Tournament based on regular-season results, at least that’s what the head coach of the top-seeded team suggested. Ian McDonald, Washington & Jefferson’s 29th-year head coach, said there are a lot of variables like injuries, teams not being prepared or the nerves of first-year players.
That being said, W&J (10-7-2, 7-0-1 PAC) overcame injuries and having to play inexperienced players this year and the Presidents still secured the No. 1 seed and hosting rights for the four-team tournament that starts Wednesday.
“We’ve told the guys, ‘You can control your destiny here, so don’t hold yourself back,’” McDonald said. “We’ve done our best to put ourselves in the right position and now it’s up to the guys to take advantage of this opportunity. We get to play at home — we’ve played well at home the last year or so — and we’re healthy now.”
W&J has had injuries to players like co-captain Christian Payne, a senior forward/midfielder who played just two games since Sept. 11, as well as sophomores Jonathan Youse and Joey Feola. They have since returned to action and the Presidents have won their last four games.
The Presidents have three of the top seven goal-scorers in the conference in junior M/D Alvaro Viadas (9), freshman M/F Dylan Mayanja (8) and sophomore M/F Michael Komaniak (7), and that goal distribution is a strength, according to McDonald.
“We’re spreading out the goals between two or three players which is always a good thing so other teams can’t single out one guy,” McDonald said. “That, and being healthy, will allow us to keep an uptempo game and keep us balanced; we’ll go to the bench if we want to pick the pace of the game up or try something different.”
Something different is what the opponents of W&J and second-seeded Geneva (10-8, 6-2 PAC) are hoping for in the semifinals. Both W&J and Geneva defeated their semifinal opponents, 1-0, on Saturday.
W&J will face fourth-seeded Grove City (7-8-2, 5-2-1 PAC) in the semifinal round, 7 p.m., Wednesday at Alexandre Stadium in Washington. The Presidents are seeking their first PAC title since 2007, while the Wolverines, a finalist a year ago, have qualified for the tournament in each of the last 12 seasons but they haven’t won it all since 2005.
Geneva hosts third-seeded Westminster (10-7-2, 5-1-2 PAC) for a 7 p.m. match Wednesday at Reeves Field. Westminster is the defending champion but the Titans lost to Geneva last year despite the Golden Tornadoes not making the tournament. Geneva won the 2016 title as the top seed after losing on penalty kicks against Westminster in the 2015 final.
“Geneva is like kryptonite for us; they are very different from the way we play and it’s always a physical match-up for us,” said Westminster coach Girish Thakar. “It’s going to be a tough game especially after playing them on Saturday, so it’s going to be interesting to see which team changes or doesn’t change. It’s like a chess match.”
Westminster has the most potent chess pieces, if you will, with senior forward Ahmed Cisse leading the PAC with 10 goals, followed by senior forward Peter Mattocks (9) and junior forward Nick Iregui (9) tied with W&J’s Viadas for second.
Saturday’s championship game will be streamed live online at pacstream.net. The winner of the game will receive the conference’s automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA Division III Championship, which begins Nov. 15.
