Practice made perfect as the Georgia Gwinnett College men’s soccer team rose to the occasion and won the Continental Athletic Conference’s Summit Division tournament championship with a 2-0 victory against Florida National University on Tuesday evening at the Grizzly Soccer Complex.
The top-seeded Grizzlies (12-4-1) captured their seventh conference championship and 12th bid to the NAIA national tournament – in 15 years for the program. The team takes a seven-match winning streak into a NAIA first-round contest on November 19, with an opponent and competition site to be announced on Saturday, November 14.
Head Coach
Steve DeCou took advantage of practice sessions during a two-week regular season break to have GGC players concentrate on taking full advantage of set offensive plays on the pitch.
The Grizzlies applied those lessons on several occasions in the tightly contested championship match, including the play that set up the team’s first goal in the 42nd minute. Senior
Francisco Osorio delivered a crossing pass from a free kick on the right side of the pitch, 20 yards away from the FNU goal. Sophomore
Jean Malilo perfectly timed his leap amongst several opposing defenders to strike a header into the left side of the net.
Then, sophomore
Ousmane Fall once again made an immediate impact for GGC after entering the contest from the bench, scoring in the 58th minute of the match. Intricate passing between junior
Pedro Nunes and Osorio got the ball to Fall in front of the FNU net. Once the 2025 All-American had control of the ball on his right foot, he evaded opposing defenders and then smashed the ball past the outreached arms of the Conquistadors’ goalkeeper.
Fall was named the Most Outstanding Player of the divisional tournament after scoring two of GGC’s five goals in the two victories, both coming in key reserve roles. He only saw action in 22 minutes of Tuesday’s championship match. Fall now leads the team with nine goals this season – scoring goals in six of the eight matches he has played this season.
Sophomore
Michael Mallaburn, freshman
JJ Grimaldo and Malilo each had two shots in GGC’s 10-shot offensive attack against FNU (10-8-1). Sophomores
Luka Colic,
Brayan Gomez and Fall joined junior
Josefa Simao with one shot apiece.
Senior goalkeeper
Dagoberto Romero made three key saves in recording the shutout.
Freshman
Santino Mazzoni joined Fall, Malilo and Romero as Grizzlies on the all-tournament team.
