Rio men blank Red Wolves, punch ticket to tourney final

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - Vilius Labutis scored a pair of goals and assisted on another, leading the University of Rio Grande to a 3-0 win over Indiana University East in the semifinals of the River States Conference Men's Soccer Championship, Wednesday evening, at Evan E. Davis Field.
     The 20th-ranked and second-seeded RedStorm improved to 13-3-2 with the victory and advanced to Saturday's championship game against top-seeded WVU-Tech, which ousted No. 5 seed Oakland City University, 1-0, in the other semifinal contest.
     The Red Wolves, the No. 6 seed in the tourney, finished 10-7-3 with the loss.
     All three Rio goals came after a scoreless first half.
     Labutis, a junior from Ireland, broke the deadlock on a header past IU East keeper Peter Lamprou - the reigning RSC Defensive Player of the Week - off a left wing pass by junior Osvaldo Pereria (Campo Grande, Brazil) with 27:25 left in the contest.
     He scored again with 8:32 remaining with a left foot boot off a touch from freshman Altan Sayar (Switzerland) and then fed freshman Dean Bregenzer (Switzerland) for the game's final marker - a bullet from the left wing just outside the 18-yard box - just over one minute later.
     Rio Grande controlled the action for much of the night, finishing with a 29-8 edge in shots overall and a 13-4 advantage in shots on frame.
     The RedStorm also tallied 10 of the 14 corner kick chances in the match.
     However, the Red Wolves did have a trio of opportunities.
     The visitors were denied twice in the opening half thanks to brilliant saves by Rio senior goalie Daniel Merino Correa (Madrid, Spain) and had another would-be game-tying shot by Dillon Gross sail high and wide right just over three minutes after the first score by Labutis.
     Correa finished with four saves in the winning effort.
     Lamprou had 10 saves in the loss for IU East.
     Saturday's championship is set for a 3 p.m. kickoff at the Paul Cline Soccer Complex in Beckley, W.Va.
     The RedStorm and the Golden Bears battled to a 1-1 draw in their regular season meeting on Oct. 15 in Rio Grande.