On their day, one senior started and another senior finished it, and in-between those two goals their teammates stepped up to the task as the Berry men's soccer team cruised to a 5-0 Southern Athletic Association win over visiting Millsaps on the Vikings' Senior Day at Pearson Field on Sunday.
The victory improve Berry to 9-3-2 overall and 3-1-2 in the SAA heading into final game of the regular season next Saturday in Atlanta against conference foe Oglethorpe.
The final home game of the regular season also marked the final time the team's seniors played on the turf at Bob Pearson Field –
Ryan Fierle and
Mason Hemstreet, who scored the first and last goals on the match, and teammates
Stephen Votapek,
JP Phillips,
Aidan Hackett,
Chris Barbieri,
Zachary Ernst,
Janson Witcher and
Ryan Fierle. Senior student athletic trainer Sally Kate Pierce who has worked with the Vikings for four years was also recognized.
On Sunday, Fierle got the ball rolling for the Vikings when he took headed the ball into the net off a corner kick from
Dylan Bloch 13 minutes in to give Berry a 1-0 lead that stood at the half.
Facing a defensive-minded Millsaps squad, the Vikings finally found a kick in the Majors' armor 35 minutes into the second half when
Tracy Moon, thanks to another assist by Bloch, scored and the goal opened the door for Berry.
Over the next nine minutes the Vikings reeled off three goals, the first coming at the 81:27 mark when
Nate Dulin scored off an assist TJ Tracy,
Nathan Carlson made it 4-0 five minutes later off a pass from
Stephen Votapek, and two minutes after that tally Hemstreet capped the output scoring one Bloch's third assist of the afternoon.
The Vikings ended the game outshooting the Majors 23-5 with 12 of those on goal.
Berry keeper
Lukas Haritos came up with three saves in the shutout.