OKLAHOMA CITY – Coming off the program's first ever NCCAA National Championship, the Mid-America Christian men's soccer team is prepared to open its split 2020-21 season at home against Texas A&M-Texarkana on Saturday. The match is scheduled to kickoff at 3:30 p.m. at Evangel Field.
LAST SEASON AT A GLANCE
Mid-America Christian will look to pick up where it left off a season ago as the Evangels are coming off the best season in program history. MACU wrapped up the 2019 season with a record-setting 20-3-1 record and defeated Grace (Ind.) 5-0 in the NCCAA National Championship match on Dec. 7 to come away with the program's first ever national championship.
The Evangels also posted their best ever finish in Sooner Athletic Conference play, going 7-1-1 in the league during the regular season and finishing just a half-game back of John Brown (Ark.) for the conference title.
It was a record-setting year on the offensive side of the field for the Evangels as MACU scored 94 goals on 81 assists for 267 points. Each mark shattered the previous best NAIA program records of 52 goals and 37 assists for 141 points set during the 2017 campaign.
The Evangels were just as tough on the defensive end, allowing a program record low 0.9 goals per game while tallying shutouts in 13 of their 24 contests, topping the previous best of eight set during the 2017 and 2018 seasons.
MACU returns a stacked offensive lineup, including two of the team's top goal scorers last season in junior forward Rodrigo Albuquerque and sophomore midfielder Pero Mikulic. Albuquerque, an NCCAA First Team All-American, scored a team-high 15 goals and dished out four assists for 34 points while Mikulic, an All-SAC Second Team selection notched 14 goals and tied a team-high eight assists for a total of 36 points.
The Evangels also expect another strong year from NCCAA All-American Fabian Forisch, who turned in a team-best eight assists during the 2019 season.
The Evangels also return a stellar backfield that features a pair of NCCAA All-Americans in senior defender Simon Wieschemann and junior goalkeeper Austen Parker as well as the 2019 SAC Defensive Player of the Year in senior defender Dejue Johnson.
In-goal, Parker started every game for the Evangels as he made 67 saves (2.79 saves per game) on a .753 save percentage while Johnson and Wieschemann helped the backfield allow fewer than a goal per game for the first time in program history.
SCOUTING THE EAGLES
Also competing in its first match of the season, Texas A&M-Texarkana is coming off a 7-10-2 season in 2019 and went 3-5-1 in Red River Athletic Conference play to finish seventh in the league standings. The program was no stranger to competing in the extra session as the Eagles played in six overtime games, going 1-3-2 in such contests.
The Eagles return their top striker from last season in senior Austin Beck. The forward from Fort Worth, Texas led the team in both goals (8) and assists (6) to be the only player on the team to score more than 20 points on the year (22).
Defensively, the Eagles will be looking to replace some key pieces, but return one of the starting goalkeepers in senior Sean Patrick Heany. Last year, Heany appeared in 12 games and made 11 starts, making a team-high 59 saves while allowing 2.2 goals per game.
HISTORY WITH THE EAGLES
Mid-America Christian and Texas A&M-Texarkana will be playing each other for the first time.
ADDED IMPACT
While the Evangels are bringing back most of their top players from a season ago, MACU has some newcomers that the coaching staff believes will make an immediate impact on the 2020-21 team. A 5-8 junior midfielder that transferred in from Iowa Lakes Community College, Luan Cesar is a strong distributor with some striking ability. In his two seasons with the Lakers, the Rio de Janiero, Brazil product scored 11 goals and dished out nine assists to lead his team to back-to-back NJCAA Regional appearances.
Another player the Evangels are hopeful that will have a breakout season is Dante Luz. Another Rio de Janiero native who transferred in from Patrick Henry Community College (Pa.), the 5-7 mid tallied 15 assists and scored 12 goals combined in his two seasons with Patriots.
STRONG SUPPORT
With the Evangels returning a large portion of its impact players as well as adding some strong newcomers, MACU is also quietly returning a lot of its stellar role players from last season that made an impact beyond the stat sheet. Senior Carlos Castrejon is a strong ballhandler with great passing skills in MACU's midfield. Despite having some injuries that kept him out for the portion of the mid-season last year, senior Endri Copa is a stellar defender that played a key role in MACU's success in the backfield. Senior midfielder Hector Valles also saw significant minutes down the stretch for MACU, even being elevated to the starting lineup late in the season.
2019 MACU STAT LEADERS
