CHICKASHA, Okla. - It was deja vu all over again for the Mid-America Christian University men's soccer team on Friday night.
For the second year in a row, MACU (12-5-1) upset the University of Science and Arts Drovers (14-3-3) in the Sooner Athletic Conference tournament on penalty kicks, this time advancing on PKs 5-4 after tying the match 1-1.
"This is the biggest win in our program's history," said co-head coach Zach Bice after the match. "It's great for us and our guys to be able to give something like this to our University, and to do it in the way we did - going on the road to beat OCU, going on the road to beat #13 Wayland Baptist, and now going on the road to take the Championship at #20 USAO - makes it even more special."
"We have the utmost respect for Jimmy Hampton and the way he has built his program at USAO," Bice continued. "The way they competed tonight made for an incredible championship game. They're a great team, and we know how hard it is to win in Chickasha. I'm so proud of our guys for fighting through the adversity we faced in this run and tonight in this match."
The Drovers controlled play in the first half, but the MACU defense proved to be strong enough to hold off the USAO offense. USAO out-shot the Evangels 5-2 in the first half, and MACU goalkeeper Dan McNicholas made three saves to preserve the 0-0 score into the halftime intermission.
In the second half, MACU generated a couple of chances in the opening minutes of the period, but it was USAO who struck first.Joe Williams collected a loose ball on the left wing and cut a couple steps toward the middle of the field and rifled a right-footed shot into the low left corner of the goal to take a 1-0 lead.
The Evangels, though, were undetered, and they kept pressing until MACU drew even in the 65th minute.
MACU brought the ball up the left wing, and it worked its way to Simon Van Rheeden in the center of the box. He laid a pass off to Kieran Chance who scored on a one-touch shot to tally his first goal at MACU and tie the match at 1-1.
Over the final 26 minutes of regulation time, the teams combined for three shots, and only one of those shots was on goal, and the match proceeded to overtime tied at 1-1.
McNicholas stopped a pair of shots in the first overtime, and Van Rheeden missed a chance high as the match continued on into the final sudden death period still tied. USAO took the only shot of the second extra session just 32 seconds into it, and it went wide, so the match ended in a 1-1 draw and moved to a penalty shootout for the second year in a row.
MACU shot first in the shootout, and Oliver May went right to beat USAO goalkeeper Daniel Merkel to put MACU up 1-0. MACU coaches Bice and Evan Dresel took a calculated risk and switched goalkeepers, going to Liam Ward in the shootout, and the move paid off. After Djbril Fofana cashe in his PK, Brandon Kalu stepped up for USAO and shot to the lower left corner. Ward dove and made the save, and the Evangels seized control. Tiuri Schieving scored on his attempt to give MACU a 3-1 lead, and the Evangels kept the presure on the Drovers with another goal from Josue Cepeda. USAO converted their third and fourth PKs on shots from Conor Fay and Bjarne Deraeve, and heading into the final round of the shootout, MACU held a 4-3 lead. Van Rheeden stepped to the spot and rifled a shot to the low right corner. Merkel got a piece of it, but not enough to stop the shot and it went in to send MACU to their first ever berth in the NAIA Men's Soccer National Championship with a 5-3 win in the shootout.
McNicholas (4-0-1) made six saves in the match, and Ward came up with the biggest save of the night in the penalty shootout. Merkel was the keeper of record for USAO, and he made one save in the contest.
The Evangels must now wait to see where they will go in the NAIA Opening Round, which will take place on Saturday, November 17. The 31 qualifiers and the bracket will be released on Monday at Noon.
