ROCHESTER, Mich. – The No. 3 seed Oakland men's soccer team opens the 2018 Horizon League Championship with a quarterfinal match against No. 6 seed Milwaukee on Monday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. The match will be broadcast live from the Oakland Soccer Field on ESPN+ with the voice of the Golden Grizzlies Neal Ruhl and legendary coach Gary Parsons on the call.
Notes:
- Oakland finished the regular season 9-6-3 overall with a 5-3 conference mark after defeating Green Bay, 1-0, off a golden game-winning goal from Dawsun Schrum in the 96th minute of overtime on Senior Night (11/2). The Golden Grizzlies are 2-1-3 in overtime games this season.
- Milwaukee finished sixth in the league standings at 3-4-1 and 8-7-2 overall after a 4-0 setback to Wright State on Friday night.
- During the regular season match between the Golden Grizzlies and Panthers on Oct. 20, Nebojsa Popovic connected on the game-winning goal with just 19 seconds left in regulation giving Oakland a crucial 1-0 road win. After making a save, Sullivan Lauderdale threw an outlet pass to Jimmy Todd who in turn passed the ball up to Popovic who dribbled across the left side and ripped a shot to the right corner to beat Panther goalkeeper Freddie Lorenzen.
- For his late game heroics against Milwaukee, Popovic was also named Nike® Horizon League Offensive Player of the Week for the second time this season (10/22).
- Noah Jensen and Evan Sawula were named to the Horizon League Men's Soccer All-Academic Team announced by the league office on Friday. Jensen is a 3.92 sophomore majoring in Actuarial Science while redshirt sophomore Sawula carries a 3.93 majoring in Bioengineering.
- Defender Luke Morrell was named Nike® Horizon League Offensive Player of the Week (10/29) marking the second consecutive week an Oakland student-athlete has earned offensive league honors. The freshman form Plainwell, Mich. notched two goals totaling four points from his defensive position to help Oakland to a crucial 4-2 win at Cleveland State (10/27). He scored the game-winning goal connecting off a rebound in front of the net in the 32nd minute and added the second with a header off a corner kick cross from Noah Jensen in the 55th minute of the second half.
- Also, against CSU, senior Jimmy Todd scored his first career goal while Dylan Borczak notched a goal and assist.
- As a team, Oakland ranks fourth in conference in goals (30), assists (27), points (87) and second in saves (72). Additionally, the team earned the 2017-18 United Soccer Coaches Team Academic Award for the sixth consecutive year and ninth overall.
- Individually, Popovic leads the team and is tied for sixth in the conference in goals (6), tied for fifth in assists (7) and eighth in points (19) while Lauderdale ranks second in saves (69) and tied for fifth in shutouts (4).
- Morrell (4 goals) and Napoleon Outlaw III (3 goals, 2 assist) ranks second on the team in points (8) followed by Travis Harrington (3 assists, 2 goals) (7) in third. Jacob Moore (3 goals), Noah Jensen (1 goal, 4 assists) and Corentin Diverres (2 goals, 2 assists) rank fourth (6) followed by Dylan Borczak (2 goals, 1 assists) and Evan Sawula (2 goals, 1 assists) in fifth (5).
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