Box Score Columbia, Mo. -The Columbia Cougar men's soccer team advanced to the American Midwest Conference semifinal match today, knocking off Williams Baptist College in the AMC postseason tournament by a score of 7-1. Columbia, the tournament's No. 2 seed, improves to 10-5-2 on the year with the win.

Freshman Matija Ceraj netted his second goal of the season to get the Cougars rolling less than ten minutes into the first half. Edin Campara would add a second goal in the 17^th minute after connecting with Nick Horne. Columbia's leading scorer Vadim Cojocov, rounded out the scoring in the first half after notching a pair of goals in the 22^nd and 27^th minute. Campara was credited with the assist on Cojocov's second goal.

The Cougars continued to apply pressure on the offensive end during the final period, when Marko Paunovic added two goals of his own in the 50^th and 64^th minute. Liam Cain picked up his 5^th assist on Paunovic's second goal. Williams Baptist would finally get on the board in the 68^th minute after Jan Striewe found the back of the net. Three minutes later, Paunovic struck again scoring his third goal of the game to complete his first hat trick of the season.

Columbia posted 16 shots in the first period and seven more in the second to finish with 23 (13 on goal) for the game, while limiting the Eagles to 14 shots (8 on goal). Daniel Ainsworth and Brady Wulff split time in goal for the win.  Ainsworth picked up three saves while Wulff had four saves on the night.

Prior to the start of the game the members of the 2014 American Midwest Conference Academic All-Conference team from Columbia College were recognized. To qualify as a member of the AMC Academic All-Conference Team student-athletes must carry a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale, and must have been a member of the program for the entire year. Danny Baird, Matija Ceraj, Piero Malerba, Kory McDonald, Akhil Noel, and Mark Steiniger were all recognized.

The Cougars will move on to face No. 3 seed Park University on Tuesday, Nov. 11 at R. Marvin Owens Soccer Stadium in the AMC Tournament Semifinal round. With a win, Columbia will advance to Friday's tournament championship game to take on the winner of top-seed Lindenwood-Belleville and No. 4 seed Hannibal-LaGrange University. For the complete tournament bracket and schedule, visit www.amcsportsonline.com.