Box Score

WESTMINSTER, Md. – With so many possibilities surrounding the outcome of the Centennial Conference men's soccer playoff race, Gettysburg College left nothing to chance by dousing host McDaniel College with a 3-2 decision on Saturday afternoon and securing the fourth seed for the upcoming league tournament. Junior Chris Bayon (Langhorne, Pa./Lawrenceville (N.J.)) provided what would be the eventual game-winning goal at the beginning of the 68th minute for the Bullets, who also picked up career victory No. 50 for Head Coach Devin O'Neill.

Gettysburg (11-6, 6-3 CC) finished the regular season with 18 points, tied with Johns Hopkins University (14-3, 6-2 CC) and Muhlenberg College (11-3, 6-2 CC) for second place behind top seed and host for next weekend's Centennial semifinals and finals, Franklin & Marshall College (15-2, 7-2 CC). Even if the Blue Jays and Mules stumble in the contests against Washington (Md.) College (6-10, 1-7 CC) and Ursinus College (7-7-2, 2-4-2 CC), respectively, this weekend, they would still hold the tiebreaker over the Bullets thanks to victories in the regular season. The Orange & Blue will host Dickinson College (13-2-2, 5-2-2 CC) in the first round of the CC playoffs slated for Wednesday, Oct. 31 at a time to be determined. Gettysburg dominated the regular season match up with the Red Devils to the tune of a 6-0 decision at Clark Field on Oct. 20.

As for today's match, the Bullets jumped to the early advantage as Ryan Schaffer (Biglerville, Pa./Biglerville) tallied the opening goal for the second consecutive contest in the 16th minute. The visitors made it a 2-0 lead later in the period when junior Ian Forster (Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks West) notched his third goal of the fall less than eight minutes before the halftime buzzer.

After being held to just one shot in the opening 45 minutes, McDaniel (7-7-4, 1-6-2 CC) pressed the action in the final period with eight shots to Gettysburg's two. The Green Terror finally broke the egg in the 57th minute as Joseph Potucek tapped home a pass from Paul Seelgren, cutting the deficit to just one.

Bayon upped the lead back to a pair of goals with his team-leading 11th score of the fall, taking a feed from senior Pat Brown (Far Hills, N.J./Ridge), who picked up his third assist this season. The goal turned into Bayon's team-best fifth game-winner of the fall as McDaniel once again managed to cut the lead to one goal in the 88th minute, but the Green Terror failed to find the equalizer before time expired.

Senior goalkeeper Matt Langston (Harrisburg, Pa./Central Dauphin East) made five saves en route to improving to 8-1 on the year. His counterpart in the Terror goal, Christian Maisel made four saves in the loss.

Coach O'Neill became the third Gettysburg coach to secure 50 victories in the 75-year history of the program. He trails William Hartshorne, who posted a record of 73-96-19 in 23 years (1930-42, 1945-54), and current Bullet Director of Athletics David Wright, who went 217-90-23 in 17 years (1986-02) at the helm.