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Mitchell Richtmyre/Fourth Estate

BY CHRISTIAN SEGOVIA, ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

On Oct. 26, Mason men’s soccer defeated St. Bonaventure 4-1 to gain sole possession of first place in the Atlantic 10. Mason’s win puts them a game ahead of Duquesne heading into the final weekend of the regular season.

Mason is now one of two in the country with 12 wins. The other is Pittsburgh, as the Panthers are ranked third nationally and sit atop the Atlantic Coast Conference. 

In the first half, the Patriots and Bonnies created chances for their teams to score a goal, but both defenses denied those chances, ending the first half 0-0.

St. Bonaventure’s Kenzo Brito opened up the scoreline, 1-0 in the second half. In the 56th minute, Brito got the pass inside the box, kicking the ball to the top left corner of the goal.

Mason wasted no time to come back. In the 57th minute, Mason forward Martim Sereno cut inside the box from the right side field, dribbling past St. Bonaventure defenders. Sereno passed to midfielder Javier Montava, who kicked the ball into the bottom right corner of the net, making it 1-1.

In the 59th minute, Montava started an attack, passing the ball to Mason defender Jordi Navio Sanchez on the right side of the field. Sanchez passed to midfielder Nicholas Prioli, who passed the ball to Mason’s Luis Maestre inside the box. Maestre found Sanchez running inside the box and kicked the ball to the left side of the net, making it 2-1.

In the 63rd minute, Mason continued its flurry of goals, as Sereno found forward Marek Gonda in the middle of the field. Gonda passed it to forward Kelly Janssen, who was running down the left side field. Janssen kicked the ball outside the box into the bottom right corner of the net, making it 3-1.

Bonnies midfielder Gabriel Addo picked up a red card, after two yellows from fouling two Mason players. St. Bonaventure went down to 10 men on the field after the 63rd-minute ejection. 

Mason capitalized on the man-advantage. Javi Sanchez passed to James Eliuda out of a free kick. Eliuda, from Mason’s defending side, crossed the ball to Janssen, running down the left field. In the 65th minute, Janssen kicked the ball past Bonnies’ goalkeeper into the bottom right corner, making it 4-1.

Mason controlled the ball for 54% of the whole game, while the Bonnies controlled the ball for 46%. 

Mason shot the ball 16 times with 11 of those shots on goal, while the Bonnies shot the ball 14 times with four of those shots on goal.

The Patriots will return to action on Nov. 2 in Richmond against VCU. A win against the Rams would clinch the A-10 regular season championship for Mason.

Madalyn Godfrey/Fourth Estate

BY CHRISTIAN SEGOVIA, ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

Editor’s Note: Players will be referred to by their gamer tags. Additionally, on Oct. 26, Mason Valorant won the MACS Championship and lost their LCQ match in a 2-0 series against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers on Oct. 28.

On Oct. 16, Mason’s Valorant team qualified for Last Chance Qualifiers (LCQ) after winning against Converse Purple (CVU) in a 2-0 series. Mason won 13-5 on Sunset and 13-7 on Icebox.

The attacking side’s goal was to get the spike down onto any map sites while the defending side’s goal was preventing the spike from being planted on any of the sites. Agents are characters that the players pick to play in the game. The agents’ abilities are used for planting the spike, stopping the spike from being planted or taking down the opponents.

Mason won the first round but CVU put Mason at a disadvantage in the next round creating a 2 v. 5 opportunity. With Mason’s Maxvince and Coco working together, Maxvince would get four kills as Coco got one.

Mason’s Soji got three kills using Neon’s ultimate overdrive with a setup from Mason’s substitute Tekkh using Breach’s Fault line, concussing the enemy team. With the chance to break a 5-5 tie, Mason initiated a retake on Sunset’s A site by bringing the fight to CVU. 

After switching to the attacking side, Maxvince almost received an ace before Tekkh took the final kill. Mason would continue their dominant performance on the attack, taking the series 1-0.

To start Icebox, Soji gained three kills with a sheriff. In round eight, CVU tried to take the fight to Mason but Mason outshot CVU to win the round.

Mason’s Blaze clutched a 1 v. 3 through outsmarting CVU players by faking his Sova’s ultimate hunter fury, pretending to use his ultimate before putting it back.

With the chance to close out the series, CVU used Viper’s Pit on B site, causing health decay whenever the enemy team stepped in the pit. Additionally, CVU used Killjoy Ultimate Lockdown, causing players inside the circle to be unable to use abilities or weapons. Tekkh received an ace but CVU won the round as Mason was left with no time to defuse the spike.

To close out the series, Coco used Gekko Ultimate, Thrash. By using Thrash, it prevented the enemy team from using their abilities or weapons for six seconds. Coco detained two CVU players helping Mason retake B site and winning the series 2-0.

From Mason’s Valorant dominance in retaking sites, working together as a team using their agent abilities and playing to their style, the team earned third place in their division.