Moraga, CA – The St. Mary’s(m) men’s soccer team scored early and often, defeating No. 9 Northwestern 3-2 on Sunday afternoon at Saint Mary’s Stadium.  The win, along with a 1-1 tie between the USF Dons and Cal State Fullerton, resulted in the Gaels capturing their own tournament championship.

“I’m happy that we won our own tournament,” said head coach Adam Cooper.  “This is great for us, and good for the West Coast Conference with San Francisco finishing second.”

After settling for a scoreless tie in its opener, Saint Mary’s scored quickly against the No. 9 ranked Wildcats as Tom Mohoric scored on a header, just 39 seconds into the game.  The goal was assisted by Trevor Newquist and Jordan Grider.

In the 12th minute, Jose Cabeza beat the Wildcat defender to the goal and scored from eight yards out to put SMC up 2-0.  Joel Fumia and Dylan Leslie set up Cabeza’s goal.

Newquist would follow with a goal of his own in the 18th minute off a header from a nicely placed corner kick by Fumia.

In the second half, Northwestern scored its first goal of the game in the 68th minute on a header by Cody Stanley.  The Wildcats would pull within 3-2 after Reed Losee’s goal in the 75th minute.  Doug Herrick and the SMC defense would not allow another goal as the Gaels captured the 3-2 victory.

“The game was a tale of two halves,” said Cooper.  “We came out on fire and scored three very good goals.  I thought we eased up on the gas a bit in the second half.  Overall, a good win against a very good team.”

San Francisco had a chance to claim the tournament with a win and led by a 1-0 score at halftime.  Cal State Fullerton would tie the game in the 70th minute as the game ended in a 1-1 draw.

With SMC and USF finishing the tournament at 1-0-1, the tiebreakers came down to ‘goals for,’ and the Gaels finished with more total goals than the Dons.

Newquist was named tournament Most Valuable Player and joined on the all-tournament team by Leslie, Herrick and Pat Watson of SMC.

Also named to the all-tournament team was Bryan Burke (USF), Fred Loechen (USF), Tanner Smith (USF), Trevor Whiddon (CSUF), Oscar Aguero (CSUF), Reed Losee (Northwestern) and Jack Hillgard (Northwestern).

Saint Mary’s is back in action on September 10 when it travels to Berkeley to take on Cal.  Kickoff is slated for 4:00 p.m. on the Golden Bear campus.