OKLAHOMA CITY – Coming off one of the most memorable seasons in program history, culminating in a Sooner Athletic Tournament Championship and advancing to the NAIA Championship final site, the Mid-America Christian men's soccer team was selected as the SAC preseason favorite, announced by the conference office on Friday.
Voted upon by the league's 10 head coaches, MACU totaled 78 total votes and garnered six of the 10 first-place votes.
The 2020-21 SAC regular season champion Southwestern Christian finished right behind MACU with 75 points and tallied the final four remaining first-place votes.
Oklahoma City and Science & Arts were neck-in-neck for the third spot, with the Stars earning 55 points, the Drovers tallying 54 and John Brown came in fifth with a total of 52.
With the 2020 SAC regular season and championships being moved to spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Evangels put together another phenomenal run, finishing just a half-game back of Southwestern Christian for the regular season title with a 6-1-1 league mark.
However, MACU caught fire in the SAC Tournament. The Evangels opened the quarterfinals with a dominant 6-0 victory over seventh-seeded Oklahoma Panhandle State at Evangel Field on Apr. 2 and followed it up with a 3-1 win over No. 6 seed Science & Arts on Apr. 6.
The Evangels got the opportunity to host their first ever SAC Tournament Championship match on Apr. 9, grinding out a hard-fought 0-0 draw after 110 minutes through challenging, windy weather conditions against tourney upstart, eight-seed Central Christian. In the postgame shootout to determine the league champion, Luan Cesar, Dejue Johnson and Mason Gonzalez all converted their attempts while Sven van den Oever made a pair of stellar saves to close out the 3-0 victory.
Mid-America Christian once again made some noise in the NAIA Opening Round, once again needing a postgame shootout when Gonzalez headed in the game-tying goal in the 89th minute to force a 2-2 draw against Morningside (Iowa) on Apr. 22
Replacing van den Oever due to injury, senior goalkeeper Juan Cediel came up with a pair of pivotal saves while Cesar, Johnson and Rodrigo Albuquerque converted their attempts before Mandela Singh-Sharpe booted through the match-sealing PK to come away with the 4-2 win.
In the NAIA Opening Round final, it was appearing that the Evangels were on another postgame shootout crash course with Bethel (Tenn.), but it was Singh-Sharpe once again coming up clutch for the Evangels, firing a 28-yard rocket shot inside the left post to pull out the 3-2 victory in the 109th minute.
The Evangels battled hard against St. Thomas (Fla.) through a torrential downpour at the NAIA Championships, but MACU saw its season come to an end with a 1-0 loss in Evans, Ga. on May 4.
Mid-America Christian brings back a deep and talented roster from last season, including 10 of its 11 regular season starters.
Offensively, Rodrigo Albuquerque will look to lead the Evangels after coming off one of the best offensive seasons in not just the NAIA, but MACU men's soccer history. The 5-8 forward from Recife, Brazil earned the SAC Co-Offensive Player of the Year and was an NAIA All-American Honorable Mention after netted a nation-leading 10 game-winning goals on-top of recording the second-most goals in a single season (17), the most assists in a year (10) and the second-most points (44) in program history.
Overall, the Evangels return their top six goal scorers as senior forward Mason Gonzalez (7), senior midfielder Cesar Ramirez (6), senior defender Endri Copa (5), senior defender Dante Luz (4) and sophomore forward Adrian Heinle (4) make their return.
Defensively, the Evangels return a star-studded cast that will feature the SAC Defensive Player of the Year and NAIA All-American Honorable Mention in Dejue Johnson. The 5-10 center-back from Linstead, Jamaica patrolled a backfield that allowed a program-record low 0.79 goals per game on just 7.4 shots per game, giving up just 3.1 on those shots on-goal.
Earning NCCAA Division I All-America Second Team honors in the spring, junior goalkeeper Sven van den Oever will look to replicate his success in goal after recording the lowest goals allowed average ever by a MACU goalkeeper at 0.71.
Overall, the defense will look to be stellar once again with the return of senior defenders Simon Wieschemann and junior defenders Fabian Forisch and Edward Alderson shoring up the back line.
Mid-America Christian will see its first action of the season on Friday, Aug. 13 as the Evangels will host Cowley College in a scrimmage set for 7:30 p.m. at Evangel Field. The Evangels officially open the regular season against Hastings (Neb.) on Friday, Aug. 27 for a 3 p.m. kickoff.
