ROME, Ga. -- The fourth-seeded Berry men's soccer team cruised to a 4-1 upset win over conference regular season champions and No. 1-seed Shorter, and now finds itself as the hosts of the SSAC Men's Soccer Championship match. The Vikings will host No. 6-seed Lee in the championship match after the Flames advanced past No. 2-seed AUM 5-4 in a penalty kick shootout after finished regulation and two overtimes at 2-2.
The Vikings are now 12-6-1 for the season and will host No. 6-seed Lee (8-9-2) in the championship match. Shorter finishes it's best season yet with a record of 9-8-2 and finished 7-1-1 in the SSAC to earn the regular season title.
"The last match [against Shorter] left us with a bad taste in our mouths," said Berry head coach Richard Vardy. "Today was a great win and it's even better to have a shot at hosting the conference championship in front of our home fans."
The Vikings got on the scoreboard in the sixth minute of play thanks to a goal from Stefan Wolf. The freshman from Rostock, Germany got on the end of a long through pass from Teja Barkmann and drove the ball low and hard into the left corner of the goal.
Despite being out-shot 8-4 in the first half, Berry found itself 2-0 up at the 21st minute. Louis Salazar headed home a Mark Bloom cross to double the Berry margin. The Vikings had just three shots on goal in the first half, but twice found the back of the Shorter net.
Daniel Bullock had to make five saves in the first half and finished the game with 10 saves as he earned the win. The freshman is now 8-3-0 in goal for Berry and has won seven of the last eight games since coming on a substitute against Thomas on senior day.
Shorter missed a chance to pull the game back to within reach, but a long distance shot hit the post and bounced out.
Berry added a third goal in the 76th minute. Teja Barkmann whipped in a cross for the Vikings, which was flicked on by Sourosh Amani and fell to Salazar at the back post for the putaway. The second goal of the match for the former Dalton High School striker gave Berry a 3-0 edge. It is the 12th goal of the season for Salazar.
In the regular season meeting between these two teams Shorter rallied late with three goals in the final 10 minutes of the match to win 4-3 in overtime. That fact had not escaped Berry nor Shorter, as both teams continued to fight on late into the match. Shorter out-shot Berry 11-5 in the second half and finished with a 19-9 shot advantage for the match.
The pressure paid off for the Hawks in the 81st minute when Dallas Dickerson was the first to reach a ball sent in from a long free kick. He scored with a nice finish to beat Bullock and planted the seed of doubt that perhaps the Hawks could once again stun the Vikings late.
Wolf looked to have erased all doubt of a Shorter comeback but his shot was denied by the post. However, the rebound fell to the foot of Reid Popple, who calmly slotted the ball home for his first goal of the season to seal the victory for the Vikings.
Berry will now host the conference championship match against Lee on Sat. at a time that is yet to be announced. These same two teams met in last year's conference championship match, with Berry pulling out a 3-0 win over the Flames. Last year's Lee team also advanced to the SSAC Championship match by beating AUM in penalties in the semifinal match.
Rome is becoming the home of championships. Last weekend Stonebridge Golf Course hosted the Men's and Women's SSAC Cross Country Championship Meet. This week Berry hosts the SSAC Volleyball Tournament and the Men's Soccer Final. Later this year Shorter and Berry will host the SSAC Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments respectively.
