October 26, 1999

TU men clinch conference title

LATROBE, Pa. -- Tiffin University men clinched the American Mideast Conference championship Monday with an 8-1 rout of St. Vincent.

It marked the first AMC title for the Dragons, who won their first conference championship since 1995.

"It feels good to win the conference title with a couple games left to go," said TU head coach Ian Day. "We scored early and that really took the pressure off the team."

What a turnaround it has been for the Dragons, who improved to 15-2-1 overall and 10-0 in the AMC after going 5-14-1 just a year ago.

Solo Hammar scored three times in the first half while Andreas Anderhov added a pair of goals and Henry Beetoe scored as the Dragons were comfortably in front by a 6-0 count at intermission.

Craig Holmes and Robert Ngumire also scored for TU in the second half.

Ali Lukungu led with four assists while Anderhov, Masahiko Ikezawa, Holmes and Beetoe each had one assist.

"This is the first conference championship since 1995 but we had won 10 in a row from 1984 through 1993. We're a very young team with only four seniors and it's a very talented group of players who have come together and it may be the quickest team I've ever had," said Day, who has coached the Dragons since 1983.

Christian Clemensson was in goal for the first 45 minutes for TU with Todd Gerbino coming on for 30 minutes and giving up one goal and John Heywood blanked St. Vincent, now 5-13 overall and 2-9 in the AMC, over the final 15 minutes.

The Dragons will host Ohio Dominican Wednesday in the final AMC contest of the season.

"We'll find out this weekend if we're going to host a playoff game. The playoffs start next Wednesday," said Day.