San Antonio, TX – Texas may be known as the Lone Star state, but seven stars were shining brightly at the Blossom Athletic Center in San Antonio late Saturday night.
Messiah claimed a 2-0 win over Calvin College in the 2009 NCAA Division III Men's Soccer National Championship, taking control early en route to the program's seventh national title in the last 10 seasons – far and away an NCAA Division III all-time best.
Saturday's victory gave the Falcons back-to-back titles for the second time in program history, as the '08-'09 grouping joins the '04-'05-'06 triad in the storied history of Messiah men's soccer.
About the only drastically different aspect of the Falcons' seventh golden trophy was the man at the helm, as first-year head coach Brad McCarty guided his squad to a 24-1 record overall – becoming the first Messiah head coach not named Dave Brandt to win a national championship.
“Dave Brandt was an awesome coach,” McCarty said late Saturday night, referring back to the 12-year program leader that helped the Falcons to six national championships and a 246-25-14 record during his tenure. “He was a great leader, and he provided us with a vision. This year, you have to credit our guys. They bought in to having a new coach, they bought in to new leadership, but in some respects there were a lot of things that were similar. I bought in to Messiah soccer for the last eight years as an assistant coach, and I wanted to maintain the pride of the program. I don't think that has anything to do with championships, but I think it has to do with standards and expectations that we hold each other accountable to. I think the guys did a great job of that.”
Saturday against Calvin (18-5-3), McCarty's club used a dominant start to help cruise to the win, notching the first five shots of the game en route to an early lead. Sophomore Derek Black took a throw-in 10 yards off the Knights' endline just 15 minutes into the game and, following a header from freshman Josh Wood, Messiah was on the board.
With Wood stationed at the near post, he held off a defender and flicked the ball across the goal mouth and on to the feet of sophomore Danny Thompson, who was rushing in from the right side.
With Calvin junior goalkeeper Ryan Bratt hugging the near side, Thompson tapped in a close-range shot into a virtually vacant net, giving the Falcons a 1-0 lead off a gorgeous, double-assisted tally.
“It was important for us to do well in the first half,” McCarty said during the post-game press conference. “That's been something that we've struggled with some during this NCAA run. We've played well in the second half, but we haven't necessarily done all that well in the first half. Tonight, I thought we did play well early, I thought we carried the play at times, and I thought our starting group did an unbelievable job at pressing them and not letting the ball out.”
As a testament to that statement, McCarty's group allowed the Knights just one first-half shot on the stat sheet, as Calvin's Kyle Billin recorded a header attempt at the 41:03 mark.
His effort produced a lazy floater, however, as senior goalkeeper Jared Clugston easily corralled the attempt for his only official save of the evening.
Calvin's best chance to notch the equalizer came just moments following the halftime break, however, as a Knights' sequence just two minutes into the second period nearly proved costly for the designated hosts.
As Calvin senior Luke Holtrop got in on the right side, he blasted an arcing shot from just outside the Falcons' 18-yard box, an effort that Clugston went high in the air to punch out.
The rebound came right back to Holtrop, however, and with Clugston off his line, an open net was there for the taking.
Holtrop lined up a second attempt on frame, but senior defender Jevon Gondwe cleared the ball off the line, averting disaster for Messiah.
Almost as if a cruel soccer joke, the ball came back to Holtrop's feet. Again.
Again he would put a shot on frame, but once more a Falcons' defender was there.
This time, senior Calvin Todd stepped in, clearing the ball away from danger with his back to the goal, drawing audible screams from the 706 in attendance.
The entire sequence occurred in just 11 seconds of real time, while the bang-bang-bang play would account for nearly half of Calvin's second-half shots.
“I was very thankful for my teammates,” Clugston said during the post-game press conference, drawing laughter from the media. “My defense has been there all year for me. I couldn't pick a better four to have back there. And then our second team that comes in, they're an unbelievable group of guys, too. I've been so fortunate in all my years playing here to have an unbelievable defense to help me out.”
Ironically, Messiah's defense was without senior and starting center back Trey Overholt, who strained a hip flexor while taking a goal kick in Friday's 2-1 semi-final win over Williams College – an act he was performing due to – again ironically – a sore back from Clugston.
Overholt did not dress in Saturday's championship game, the first and only game of the season he did not start. Sophomore Jordan Sands filled in at the right back position, as junior Jon Burke moved over to the middle.
“Today was one of the longest games I've ever been a part of at Messiah College,” Overholt said afterward. “Even though we were up, it still seemed like it lasted forever. It's just so different to be watching from the sideline after being involved so much.”
Overholt's teammates provided him with some peace of mind just moments after Calvin's flurry, however, as Wood got in on the left side following a rare Messiah counter attack in the 50th minute.
Wood shielded a pair of defenders and made a nice turn, shuffling the ball to junior Geoff Pezon, who was making a run down the middle third of the field and into the Knights' penalty area.
Immediately after receiving Wood's feed, Pezon was taken down hard by Calvin's Greg Snapper, earning the Knights' senior a yellow card and Messiah its fifth penalty kick of the season.
McCarty chose junior Nick Thompson to do the honors, and the Hudson, Ohio native placed a low, hard shot to the bottom corner of the goal – an effort aided by a wrong-way guess from Bratt.
“I don't really remember how it all happened,” Pezon said. “I just remember some interplay and Josh Wood getting the ball on the wing, and just getting taken out. Nicky T stepped up and put (the penalty kick) away, and it was obviously a big play for us.”
With a 2-0 lead in hand and survival of a serious push from the Knights, it seemed as if Messiah needed only to keep the pace of play – and wait out the clock.
And, for almost the entirety of the final 40 minutes of action, that is what occurred. Calvin attempted only four more shots on the evening – none of which were on frame – as McCarty's group possessed its way to the eventual 2-0 win.
“When Messiah scored on the penalty kick, it would have been easy to pack it in and quit but our team kept fighting hard and played a great game over the final 40 minutes,” said Calvin senior Michael Holwerda. “I was proud of our team for playing hard to the very end.”
Calvin head coach Chris Hughes seemed to agree.
“In a game like this you have to expect the intensity that Messiah brought to this game in the first 20 minutes,” Hughes said. “We had an opportunity or two there early in the second half that could have changed momentum but it didn't quite go our way. It was a great game and Messiah is a great team.”
The Knights' last true hope to cut the lead in half came with 7:45 remaining, when freshman Joe Broekhuizen won a ball some 35 yards away from the Messiah goal and ripped a liner from distance.
His knuckling shot had pace and spin, but it curled just outside the far post, out of harm's way off the endline.
As the final seconds ticked down and the championship assured, McCarty hugged his assistants. Senior Brett Faro took a knee, fighting back his emotions, while Messiah's women's team rushed on the field to join in the celebration: Behind their 1-0 win over Washington University-St. Louis earlier in the day, Messiah had claimed a men's-women's dual national championship for the third and only time in NCAA history.
On the men's side, Messiah moved to a perfect 7-0 in national championship game appearances, highlighting the program's 11th 'Final Four' appearance overall and ninth trip in the last 10 seasons.
After Clugston was honored with tournament most valuable defensive player honors – Pezon earned most valuable offenisve player accolades while both Overholt and Black joined them on the all-tournament team – the attention shifted to those players who came before this group, helping to comprise the ever-growing legacy which is the Falcons' program.
“One thing that drew me here was the close-knit, family feel of the team,” Clugston said after a lengthy on-field celebration with former players and teammates. “You look into the stands before games and see the alumni lined up along the fence, cheering for you. And then, after games, people will come up that I've never met before, congratulating me by name. That's something that is truly beyond words that I can't describe.”
Overholt took it a step further.
“This is definitely bigger than ourselves,” he said. “Especially about the name across our chest. We just want to represent the standards that we try to live by. For us, giving all we have is something that applies just as much to life as it does soccer. If we can represent the name we're wearing across our chest, then we're just part of the bigger picture, a small piece of the puzzle, and we're honored to be a part of that.”
