To the victor goes the spoils: Whoever wins the Conference USA league title holds the right to host the C-USA tournament.
Due to a 1-0 defeat of Memphis last weekend, the Saint Louis University men’s soccer team can win the regular-season title with a win or a tie at South Florida on Friday.
With good fortune, history won’t repeat itself. In the 1998 season, SLU had the same chance to win the league title when they traveled to South Florida the last week of the season. SLU lost, however, 2-1 in overtime and South Florida held the C-USA tournament.
SLU Coach Bob Warming doesn’t see a recurrence of that season’s mishap.
“We fully comprehend the seriousness of the situation facing us at South Florida on Friday,” said Warming.
SLU(10-3-2, 5-1-1) will be facing a determined South Florida (10-8-2, 3-4) team that must win to qualify for the C-USA tournament. Currently, the Bulls are in seventh place in the league, and only six compete in the tournament. With a win over SLU, South Florida would have a good chance of unseating Louisville (11-7, 3-3) for the sixth seed. Louisville has yet to play No. 10 UAB (11-3-2, 4-1-2).
South Florida will provide another worthy challenge for the Billiken defense. The Bulls have a high-octane scoring attack, placing in the top three of the league in shots, goals, assists and points per game. Greg Krauss leads the league in scoring with 28 points, while Jeff Thwaites is the league leader in assists.
“We have to match South Florida’s intensity, especially with the absence of Jason Cole,” said defender Joe Hammes.
Cole, a preseason C-USA, pick is doubtful for the rest of the season with a torn meniscus in his right knee.
The sophomore defender is scheduled to have surgery on Friday, with an anticipated recovery time of three to four weeks. If SLU makes a run in the NCAA tournament, there’s a chance he might make a return to the field before the end of the season. Losing Cole hurts, but the Billiken defense has been playing great as of late.
Saturday, the defense put forth another stellar effort, and their offense came through when the game was on the line. Nick Walls’ goal in overtime gave SLU a 1-0 win over Memphis (11-5, 5-3).
“We dug down deep tonight, which is all you can say when you play nearly 50 minutes down a man,” Warming said.
“You can talk about character, heart, leaving it all on the field, conditioning–it was all evident tonight.”
The match was an even battle until a disputed call changed the result of the game. In the 59th minute, Brad Davis received a yellow card for wearing jewelry, a crucifix to be exact. Warming tried to substitute him out of the game, but it wasn’t allowed.
When play resumed, Davis received his second yellow card, for not leaving the field of play, resulting in his ejection. Warming protested and was also kicked out. In the first 15 minutes of the second half, there were five carded infractions handed out between the two teams.
Davis’ second yellow card brought his season number up to five, which results in a one-game suspension under league rules. In that case, the freshman forward would not be able to play against South Florida. Warming, however, filed an appeal to league officials, and the outcome was in SLU’s favor. League officials took away his second yellow card, enabling him to play this weekend.
John Politis came through in the clutch again on Saturday, posting his sixth consecutive shutout and increasing his scoreless minutes in goal to 606:14. He also earned C-USA Defensive Player of the Week for his shutouts of Marquette and Memphis.
Politis made a career-high nine saves against Memphis, lowering his goals against average to .23 goals per game. The junior from Roslyn, N.Y., is about to break SLU’s single season record, set by Rob Vallero, who gave up .45 goals per game in 1974.
With 32 seconds remaining, Politis saved a point-blank shot by Memphis’ Sean Frasier to send the game into overtime. He also stopped Lars Thorstensen and Tommy White, each of whom had excellent scoring chances.
“Our defense played well, but Johnny saved the game for us. He’s playing with so much confidence right now,” said junior Tim Sartori.
If SLU wins or ties Saturday, the C-USA tournament will be held at Robert R. Hermann Stadium Nov. 9-12.
