Men's Soccer Posts Another Clean Sheet to Advance to Third Round of NCAA Championship

SAN ANTONIO – As they have done all season, the St. Mary's Men's Soccer team's defense showed why they are one of the toughest teams in the nation, defeating Midwestern State 1-0 in the Second Round of the NCAA Championship on Sunday night.
 
The clean sheet for the Rattlers (12-1-6) is the 13th of the season, breaking the Lone Star Conference single-season record of the Mustangs (13-6-3) from four different seasons (2007-2010) and West Texas A&M from 2009. It also gives junior goalkeeper Andre Schlaefli (Katy, Texas) the individual season record in the league with 12, breaking the 2009 record of 11 by Raul Herrera from MSU.
 
"This win means a lot," said Head Coach Johnny Clifford. "Midwestern (State) is a big-time franchise in this conference and for us to beat them twice in one season – we are really proud of that. I think tonight was a better performance than what we put in last week (in the LSC Tournament against Oklahoma Christian) and we dug in deep. I challenged the boys at halftime and I think we did a good job of neutralizing them in the second half."
 
Sophomore Andrick Ferrer (Buffalo, N.Y.) scored the lone goal of the game in the 61st minute, as he took a cross from senior Juan Jose Valdez Lopez (Ascuncion, Central, Paraguay) that bounced to the opposite side of the goal box and snuck it into the top right corner of the net. 
 
The goal is the third of the season for Ferrer, while it is the second assist for Valdez as the team advances to its second-ever NCAA Round of 16 (2019).
 
Each team had nine shots in the game, as the two trophy winners in the Lone Star Conference battled for 90 minutes. The Rattlers won the regular season trophy, while the Mustangs won the conference tournament at Sigma Beta Chi Field. Sunday marked the fourth-straight game on the Rattlers home pitch for MSU, but the first against StMU.
 
The Rattlers are the highest remaining seed in Super Region 4 and will host the third and fourth rounds of the NCAA Championship. Cal State Dominguez Hills and Northwest Nazarene will square off at 3 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 17, while the Rattlers face a rematch with Colorado State-Pueblo at 6 p.m. The winners will play at 6 on Saturday evening.