The No. 3 seeded Johnson & Wales Men's Soccer team defeated the No. 6 seeded Regis (Mass.) Pride on Saturday night, punching their ticket to the Great Northeast Athletic Conference semifinals on Tuesday night. The Wildcats are looking to defend their 2019 GNAC title.
Johnson & Wales started off on the front foot, with two shots on goal in the first ten minutes of the game. The pressure continued into the 29th minute of the game when JP Rioux (Stony Point, N.Y.) drew a free kick in the attacking half. Kevin Reilly (Norwood, N.J.) stepped up a curled a shot into the far post, just past the Regis (Mass.) goalkeeper for the opening score of the game.
Rioux added a goal of his own just four minutes later after Nick Gutekunst (East Northport, N.Y.) played a through ball to the striker who rounded the goalkeeper and passed into the open net.
Fifteen minutes into the second half, the Wildcats got their third goal through Esteban Osorio (Central Falls, R.I.), who passed into the bottom right corner of the net from the six-yard box on a low cross from Ricky Africo (North Providence, R.I.). The Wildcats added a fourth with just over four minutes remaining, when Osorio played Conner Elliot through on the right side of the box, and he fired a low shot into the far post.
In net, Jacob Friedman (Woodland Hills, Calif.) saved all four of the shots on net he faced for JWU. Freddie Beckmann made three saves for the Pride.
The Wildcats advance to the Semifinals on Tuesday when they will travel to take on the Norwich Cadets, with a time TBD.
