Gulf South Men's Championship: Top Seed UWF Faces Upset-Minded CBU
Gulf South Men's Championship: Top Seed UWF Faces Upset-Minded CBU
West Florida steamrolled its way into the Gulf South Championship, while a Christian Brothers team that has thrived with defense looks to do so again.
Top-seeded West Florida's advancement to the Gulf South Conference Championship comes as no surprise. The Argos, which have yet to drop a match to GSC competition this season, continued that perfect streak with a 4-1 semifinal win over Auburn Montgomery.
UWF's title-round opponent, on the other hand, had to outperform its seeding to keep its season alive.
Christian Brothers finished GSC play 5-2-4, slipping to the No. 7 seed as part of a five-team logjam. But a 2-1 win over second-seeded Lee on Oct. 30 and a 1-0 victory over Mississippi College on Thursday landed the Bucs in a championship showdown with the Argos.
Lucho Galizzi came through in both Christian Brothers wins, delivering an assist against Lee and scoring the decisive goal against Mississippi College.
The Argos have been unstoppable since Oct. 9, however, winning six consecutive matches by no fewer than two goals.
Kainan Dos Santos has been on fire over that stretch and beyond, pacing UWF offensively with eight goals scored in seven of the past eight games. That includes one in the Argos' semifinal win over UAM.
Klink set his season-high that day, but has made at least three in four of Christian Brothers' last five matches, and has 50 for the campaign.
The Bucs may need a stellar performance out of Klink in the championship. West Florida came into Huntsville with one of the most aggressive offenses in the country at 14.7 shots attempted per game.
CBU isn't lacking in that regard, though, and in fact ranks second in the GSC for shots-on-goal per game. The activity of Galizzi, who has 19 shots on goal, and Habib Binate with 10 paces the Bucs.
Keegan Ancelin complements Dos Santos on the West Florida side, meanwhile, with 14 shots on the goal this season and six goals, second-most on the team. Ancelin also has 15 points, thanks to his three assists.
Fynn Geigle leads West Florida in that category with seven assists, one more than Dos Santos has passed out. Brian Torre's four leads CBU.
While Christian Brothers doesn't have quite the same eye-popping offensively statistics as West Florida, the Bucs have reached this point with defense. CBU opponents have a shot percentage of just 0.076, with 72 shots on goal allowed all season. The previous matchup with West Florida was an outlier in that regard.