East Lansing advances to CAAC Gold Cup final

EAST LANSING –

Led by Zach Lane's two-goal performance, East Lansing advanced to the CAAC Gold Cup finals with a 4-1 victory over Williamston on Tuesday night.

In their quest to win back-to-back CAAC Cup's, the Trojans (17-1) will face Mason in the championship game.

"We wanted to win the tournaments, so we're moving on towards our goal," East Lansing senior forward DeJuan Jones said. "It would be nice to repeat. The finals will be at home, which will be nice to play in front of our fans again."

Nearly 10 minutes into the match, Jones set up the game's first goal with a through ball that slid across the water-drenched pitch and found Lane, who buried it in the back of the net.

"We knew the pitch was going to be wet and the conditions were going to be harder to play as smoothly as general," said Lane. "We just wanted to play our game. Do what we usually do and focus on first touches and things like that. We didn't let it affect the game too much."

The Hornets' (9-3-5) Aidan Pace scored the equalizer at the 21:48 mark, but Jones' goal with 3:25 remaining in the half gave the Trojans a 2-1 lead.

"I thought the second goal that we gave up was a significant moment," said Williamston coach Brent Sorg. "I just tried to remind them, 'Hey, we were down 2-0 at the half to DeWitt. Now, you're in the same position, so come back and battle.'"

Even with a 2-1 lead, East Lansing continued to bring pressure defensively in hopes of turning it into quick offense.

"We wanted to attack and pressure them really hard so they didn't have any chances," Jones said. "In the first half, they had a goal because we weren't applying enough pressure. We really picked it up in the second half and it opened up opportunities."

With 16:20 remaining in the game, Will Uecker's long through ball found the foot of Nicolas Isham, and he was able to poke the ball into the net.

About three minutes later, Lane added another insurance goal.

"Williamston has been on a roll," said East Lansing coach Nick Archer. "They're a lot stronger team than when we played earlier in the season.

"The more possession we had the less they had it, and the better off we thought we were. Defensively, we wanted to build up from there. We wanted to break them down, and get through balls. We were fortunate enough to put four goals in."