Miners draw closer to playoff spot with win over Pumas

Andy Held

RENSSELAER, Ind. -- The UMR men's soccer team drew a step closer to landing a spot in the Great Lakes Valley Conference playoffs Friday night with a 3-1 victory over Saint Joseph's.

The victory improved the Miners, 8-8-1 overall, to 6-5-1 in GLVC play with one game remaining. The Miners are currently tied for seventh place with Drury with identical .542 winning percentages as Drury played Wisconsin-Parkside to a 1-1 tie Friday night. A win or a tie by the Miners in their league finale will get them into the playoffs for the second year in a row.

The Miners close the season Sunday at Indianapolis while the Panthers play host to Lewis and Missouri-St. Louis, a 2-0 loser Friday at UIndy, will play at Saint Joseph's. The Rivermen fell behind UMR and Drury in the standings after Friday's contests.

UMR could finish with as high as the No. 5 seed for the conference tournament if it wins its game Sunday and Drury can knock off Lewis on the final day of conference play. The Miners would be tied with Drury in terms of winning percentage, but UMR holds the tiebreaker based on its 1-0 win over the Panthers last month.

In Friday's contest, UMR got two goals from Andy Held -- his 10th and 11th of the season -- and a tally from Nick Landon to get the win.

Held opened the scoring with a goal at the 5:49 mark with assists from Will Kirby and Derek Pelate, who was seeing his first action since suffering an injury on Oct. 1 at Rockhurst. Saint Joseph's, whose head coach, Eric Rue, resigned on Thursday, got the score even at 29:36 on a goal from John Grigorakis.

However, Landon broke the tie with an unassisted goal at 77:10, then Held added an insurance goal at 85:15 off an assist from Alvaro Lopez.

UMR outshot the Pumas 19-7 in the game, as Miner goalkeeper Mike McNamee was credited with one save as Saint Joseph's managed to get only two of its seven shots on net.

The Miners and Indianapolis will face off in a game that will start at 11 a.m. Central time Sunday.

GLVC PLAYOFF SCENARIO (Through Oct. 13 games)
1. SIU Edwardsville, 10-2-1 (clinched No. 1 seed)
2. (tie) Northern Kentucky, 8-2-2 (NKU holds tie-breaker edge over UWP)
2. (tie) Wisconsin-Parkside, 8-2-2
4. Rockhurst, 8-3-1
5. (tie) Indianapolis, 7-5-0 (UIndy holds tie-breaker edge over LU)
5. (tie) Lewis, 7-5-0
7. (tie) Missouri-Rolla, 6-5-1 (UMR holds tie-breaker edge over DU)
7. (tie) Drury, 5-4-3
9. Missouri-St. Louis, 5-5-2

Quincy, Bellarmine, Southern Indiana, Kentucky Wesleyan and Saint Joseph's have been eliminated from playoff contention.