JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The dream season will continue for the Jacksonville men's soccer team (6-4-1) following a decisive, 4-2, result over the Lipscomb (6-5-2) in the semifinal of the 2021 ASUN Men's Soccer Championship. The Dolphins will play for a conference title for the first time since 2017, looking to win their first since 2008, and will try to become the fourth team in six years to win a league crown on its home field.

"I'm ecstatic for the boys," head coach Mauricio Ruiz said. "The way that they're coming together and loving one another as a team has been remarkable. Supporting players are stepping into bigger roles, we've taken a next-man-up mentality. It's a collective effort. Collective defending, collective attacking and just getting better. The motto of the team has become 'can we get better every time out' and I think that's exactly what we're seeing. Our guys don't just think they can get better, they know they can."

Jacksonville was the aggressor early on in this one, just as it has been for the last several games. There was a feeling of déjà vu when Jake Johnson got the scoring started by using his head to carom home his second goal in as many games just over five minutes into the game. Nil Ringstand scored a header off a corner less than three minutes later – both goals assisted by Cao Chaves – to push the Dolphins ahead, 2-0, before some fans had even found their seats.

In the 23rd minute, Olivier Correa was able to settle his feet while crossing the top off the box. What appeared to be a broken play was suddenly a thunderous strike to a low corner, past the diving Lipscomb goalkeeper to make it 3-0 Dolphins in the blink of an eye. Correa's tally matches him with Reed Davis for the team lead with five goals so far this season. Davis and Chaves earned assists on the play.

Chaves' trio of assists are tied for the second-most in a single game in program history. He becomes just the ninth Dolphin to accomplish that feat and the first since Darko Karamatic on Oct. 17, 2010 to hand out three assists in game.

While Jacksonville saw it's scoreless streak on defense at home snapped at 423 minutes and 35 seconds when Lipscomb tallied it first goal on a scramble play at the 43:03 mark, it carried the momentum into the half after surviving a late push that saw Lipscomb pepper five shots over the final 10 minutes. The Dolphin defense was not going to be denied in the second half.

In the 61st minute, the longest-tenured Dolphin found himself in the right place at the right time to tally the game-sealing score. Jose Manzo served a corner kick that Johnson headed on to find the chest of a charging Connar Lufkin who redirected the ball into the wide-open net to make it 4-1. Lufkin, a fifth-year senior has seen it all as a member of this program and it felt poetic for it to be Lufkin who wears the number four, to tally the fourth score of the game for JU.

Lipscomb scored once more in the 79th minute but it proved to be too little, too late. Matt Levy made four saves against 19 shots (six on goal). The Dolphins advance to square off with FGCU on Saturday night (Apr. 17) under the lights at Southern Oak Stadium for the ASUN Championship and the right to compete in the NCAA Tournament.