SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- Midwestern State is seeking its fourth consecutive Lone Star Conference Men's Soccer Championship title. The Mustangs are the No. 2 seed in the six-team field and play third-seeded St. Edward's at Sigma Beta Chi Field in the semifinals at 7:30 on Friday night.

St. Mary's, the No. 1 seed and the host school, faces fifth-seeded Dallas Baptist in the first semifinal match at 5 p.m. on Friday.

Midwestern closed out the regular season with three straight wins and secured the No. 2 in the conference tournament. The Mustangs are 12-2-3 overall with a 7-2-1 conference record, and they moved to third in the Super Region Four rankings released Wednesday afternoon by the NCAA Division II Men's Soccer Committee.

St. Edward's is 8-5-4 overall with a 5-2-3 record in the conference. The Hilltoppers hosted UT Tyler in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament and scored a 2-1 victory over the Patriots. Pablo Zavala and Masood Porsa were the goal scorers for St. Edward's, which rallied from a 1-0 deficit to reach the semifinals.

The Hilltoppers defeated Midwestern State, 5-0, when the two sides met at Lewis-Chen Family Field in Austin, Texas, earlier this season. The Hilltoppers scored three goals in a span of 63 seconds just past the half-hour mark, and Arthur Souza scored twice for St. Edward's.

The five-goal outburst was a season-high for the Hilltoppers, who have posted six clean sheets this season.

Souza is the second-leading goal scorer in the conference with eight goals, and goalkeeper Angel Ramirez is third in the nation with a save percentage of .844. Ramirez has allowed seven goals in 11 games with a 0.84 goals-against average, which is second in the conference.

St. Edward's has a plus-9 goal differential this season, outscoring opponents, 28-19, and is averaging 1.65 goals per game.

Midwestern State leads the all-time series with the Hilltoppers, 35-7-5, and had won seven previous matchups prior to the loss on Oct. 2.


Midwestern State midfielder Mere Escobar is the leading goal scorer in the conference and is the sixth-leading goal scorer among NCAA Division II players with 14 goals scored for the Mustangs. Escobar also has eight assists for 36 total points, which also leads the league and is fifth most in the nation.

Escobar scored his 14th goal of the season and the 58th of his career against Lubbock Christian at Stang Park on Oct. 26, which ties the MSU school record for career goals. The senior has matched the career output of Alvin Alexander from 1975-78 and Kris Henderson from 1987-90. The native of Austin, Texas, scored two or more goals in a game for the 13th time in his career and for the fifth time this season.
Samuele Muroni is the second-leading goal scorer for the Stang Gang with seven goals and among players with at least 20 shots, Muroni has the highest shots-on-goal percentage for MSU at .571 — 16 of his 28 shots have been on frame this season.

Max Gonzales has scored a goal in each of the last two games for the Mustangs and has scored six times this season, including twice against Texas A&M International on Oct. 5.

Head coach Michael Meachum reached a milestone with a 3-1 victory over St. Mary's in the Mustangs' last match. In his seventh season at the helm, Meachum has a record of 100-21-12 and a winning percentage of .797.

Escobar set up Tristian Adams for a header in the 80th minute to break up a scoreless match. Gabriel Gacovicaj and Max Gonzales also scored goals for the Mustangs, who defeated the LSC regular season champions to close out the regular season at Stang Park on Nov. 6.

Goalkeeper Daniel Robles improved his record to 7-1-3 in 12 appearances. The 6-2 junior from Tyler, Texas, has allowed 14 goals and made 28 saves with a .667 save percentage. His goals-against average is 0.67.

The winner of the semifinal match faces either St. Mary's or Dallas Baptist in the championship match on Sunday afternoon. Kickoff at Sigma Beta Chi Field is scheduled for 1 p.m.