Ozil United claims Spring Intramural Soccer Championship

Ozil United sporting their 'Just Did It' T-shirts after winning the Spring Intramural Soccer Championship (photo courtesy GMU Rec Sports).

The Men’s All-Campus Game itself was rather uneventful as Ozil United was crowned champion after Pike A, the winners of the IFC Bracket, simply forfeited.  However, the champion’s path to the All-Campus game was a rather stunning feat. 

Ozil United started out as the No. 5 seed, taking on the No. 4 seed Mason United FC, and winning the match, 2-1. Their next match would prove far from easy.

Ozil United advanced to the semi-finals only to meet the top-seeded team of the tournament, CCM Crossfire, who had yet to be scored on in regulation time. 

Crossfire was missing their main goalkeeper, Mike Eberhardt, and their star midfielder, Tyler Fabian; however they still managed to be quite an obstacle.  The match was very back and forth, but at the end of the day Ozil United ended up on top scoring the lone goal of the match. 

On to the championship.

In the final round of the Independent Men’s League Championship, Ozil United dominated the No. 2 seed CCM Angels, winning 4-0.  The Angels were missing one of their top scorers, Mike Cassell; however nothing seemed to be going the Angels’ way with Ozil scoring one of their goals from nearly 30 yards out. 

Captain Esaam Kamareddine and Patrick Meagher both put one past the keeper, Mark Seikaly was credited with two assists, while Meagher was given one, and Amen Elbaba was the high-scorer of the match scoring two goals. 

Prompted about who the MVP of the team would be, King “The King” Gyasi, a transition player for Ozil United who played both right back and right midfield, answered, “I think Matt [Stough],” further stating, “I feel like he is a really good player, it doesn’t matter where you put him, he always delivers.  He did a great job.”

Ozil proved to be the best team in the tournament and were thoroughly rewarded for their spectacular play with a set of “Just Did It” t-shirts and the ever-glorifying title of champion. 

“I am going to play on the same team next year because we won and it’s the best team,” Gyasi said. 

The other intramural soccer league tournaments went as follows:

The No. 2 seed Team Beef Water took home the win over top-seeded Goal Diggers FC with a 2-1 victory to claim the rights to the Independent Men’s B-League Championship. 

This game was far from friendly with both sides having a man sent off as a result of a red card and two others punished by receiving yellows.

Francis McLaughlin was credited with two unassisted goals for the winning side, as well as one of the yellow cards, and Boubacar Kane was credited with Goal Diggers FC’s single goal.    

Top-seeded Alpha Phi A took home the Championship in the Sorority bracket after defeating the No. 3 seed Alpha Omicron Pi, 1-0, following an Allyson McDonald strike.  The only card of the game was a yellow given to Alpha Omicron Pi’s Shannon Darling.

The last-seeded team in the bracket stunningly won the Co-Rec Championship, the No. 10 seed Wasted Potential.  Wasted Potential began their run facing off against No. 7 seed The Special Ones, winning by a score of 3 goals to 2. 

Next, Wasted Potential took an easy second round win over the Paladins after the Paladins failed to field a team for the match, resulting in a forfeited 2-0 win for Wasted Potential.  

In the third round of the tournament, Wasted Potential won a close one over No. 6 seed CRUnited, who had previously defeated the No. 3 seed CCM Saints in a penalty shootout that went seven players deep.  Wasted Potential walked away from this one with a narrow 1-0 victory.

Wasted Potential then took on the No. 4 seed Mason Ambassadors in the championship game. 

The Mason Ambassadors only had to play one game to make it there, a 1-0 victory in the quarterfinals over The Revolution, receiving a bye in the semi-finals since neither the No. 1 seed Fighting Mongeese or the No. 8 seed Mighty Morphin Flower Arrangers showed up for their quarterfinal game.

The Championship game played completely one-sided with Wasted Potential dominating the field, resulting in a 4-0 victory over the Mason Ambassadors and new t-shirts to show off their accomplishment. 

These are the results of this year’s spring intramural soccer leagues.