RUTHERFORD, NJ (Nov. 6, 2023) - Georgian Court Men's Soccer and Felician played a thrilling CACC Tournament Quarterfinal Round game Monday night. The Lions took the early lead, but Felician tied with less than 10 minutes to play to force overtime. Neither team scored in the extra periods, meaning penalty kicks were needed to determine a winner. After seven rounds of kicks, Georgian Court finally came out on top to advance to the CACC semifinals. The match is technically a draw for the Lions who are now 5-8-5 overall this season.

How it Happened
• This was a close game throughout with plenty of action. 
• Felician led in overall shots 19-17, but GCU put more on target, 8-7.
• The Golden Falcons played near the goal line and earned nine corner kicks while GCU took just one.
• Each team picked up their fair share of fouls. The Lions had 20 called on them and two yellow cards. Felician was carded four times while whistled for 16 common fouls.
• Georgian Court was peppering the net to start the game. They rattled off three consecutive shots and got their only corner kick in the seventh minute of the game, but nothing found its way to the net.
• After more than 20 scoreless minutes, the Lions finally broke through. Mathias Madersbacher came in and scored on an assist from Joseph Juarez in the 25th minute.
• The Lions were hungry and looking for more. Shortly after the Madersbacher goal, he had another shot that Emanuele Moretti made a save on and Gijs Van Eif's shot off the rebound hit the post and stayed out.
• Felician started to find their legs offensively near the 30th minute. Fabio Krissler made a save on a header and the Lions avoided any damage on three consecutive corner kicks.
• A foul in the 41st minute gave GCU a free kick from about 30 yards out. Sebastian Derflinger stepped up to take it. His strike went off the bottom of the crossbar, hit off the goalkeepers hand and into the back of the net putting the Lions up 4-0 with four minutes left in the half.
• Now 45 minutes away from advancing the Lions kept their two-goal lead for 30 of those minutes. 
• In the 75th minute Felician started applying pressure with another corner kick and a shot that went wide. Still in the offensive zone, the Golden Falcons cut the lead in half as Andy Alvarez got Felician on the board with an assist from Tim Jaeger.
• Not 10 minutes later Felician found the equalizer. A foul in the box gave the Golden Falcons a penalty kick opportunity. Alex Ramos drilled it and tied the game with five minutes to play.
• In the closing minutes, Felician had another shot blocked and two corner kick opportunities, but GCU escaped to play overtime.
• Both teams were very conservative in each overtime period. There was only one shot in the 20 minutes and Jaeger's attempt sailed high.
• Still tied at two after 110 minutes, the game went to a shootout to determine who advances. Felician hit their first but their second went wide giving the Lions the advantage. Madersbacher, Ibrahim Madad and Ryan Lee all made the first three.
• In the fourth round though, the Lions missed and after five rounds, each team made four kicks.
• Both squads hit their sixth shot, Zack Dittus for GCU. On the Golden Falcons seventh they sent their goal keeper Emanuele Moretti for an attempt and Krissler stonewalled his counterpart making the save meaning a made kick give the Lions the game.
• GCU sent freshman Tim Wilk to the line and the freshman delivered scoring to advance the Lions to the semifinals.

Lion Stat Leaders
• Mathias Madersbacher took four shots, three on net and scored a goal.
• Sebastian Derflinger scored on a free kick.
• Gijs Van Eif led GCU with six total shots.
• Joseph Juarez added an assist.
• Fabio Krissler made four saves.

For the Golden Falcons
• Emanuele Moretti also made four saves.
• Alex Ramoss scored on three shots.
• Riccardo Benini led Felician with four shots.
• Andy Alvarez scored.
• Tim Jaeger had three shots and an assist.

News and Notes
• This was the first ever postseason matchup between the Lions and Golden Falcons. 
• In CACC games, GCU is now 5-5-3.
• This is the third time Georgian Court has gone to penalty kicks in the CACC postseason and GCU has won all three.
• With his goal in the first half, Mathias Madersbacher moved to fourth all-time at GCU in goals scored. 
• Fabio Krissler moved to sixth all-time in saves for the Lions.
• Oscar Jannesson surpassed 3,000 minutes played. Maurice Engl went passed 2,000 minutes and Robert Tapp 1,000 minutes.
• The NCAA Postseason has changed since the last time the Lions were in it. With the elimination of overtime in the regular season, the trade-off was overtime in the postseason means a full 20 minutes. No longer is there a sudden death, golden goal.

Up Next
• Georgian now advances to the CACC Tournament semifinal where they'll play host and No. 3 seed Bridgeport Friday, Nov. 10 at 7 p.m.