Courtesy of RobertsRedHawks.com
KISSIMMEE, Fla. – The Roberts Wesleyan University men’s soccer team saw its season come to an end in the semifinals of the National Christian College Athletic Association Division I Soccer Championship on Friday afternoon.
Playing their third game in four days, the second-seeded Redhawks allowed an early goal in each half and dropped a 5-1 decision to No. 3 Campbellsville University of Kentucky.
Junior Toby Balaam scored the lone goal for the Redhawks on a 20-yard blast that tied the game at 1 in the seventh minute. The goal was Balaam’s fourth of the season and second of the tournament. Senior Tamas Nagy assisted on the play.
“Unfortunately conceding that early goal put us behind the 8-ball and we ended up chasing the game,” Reber said. “I liked our response of scoring a minute and a half later, but we tried to open the game up and just couldn’t convert.”
The Redhawks (7-8-5) enteres the tournament as the No. 6 seed, but jumped up to second after winning Pool A. Campbellsville (15-5-3) entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed but was re-seeded third after playing to a 0-0 draw with Roberts on Wednesday. The Tigers will play Westmont College in the championship match at 6 p.m. on Saturday. Westmont defeated Central Christian College of Kansas, 3-2, in Friday’s first semifinal.
Campbellsville took a 3-1 lead into halftime on Friday and scored twice more in the second half to close out the match.
“I am really proud of the guys,” Reber said. “To go from the No. 6 seed to the No. 2 seed and play in the final four is a great accomplishment and is certainly something to be proud of. If you would have told me in August that we would be playing in the semifinals of a national tournament on Dec. 1, I would have taken that in a heart beat.”
Roberts was looking to win its first NCCAA National Championship after finishing second last year. The Redhawks also were runners-up in 2002 and 2008.
Reber was pleased with the growth his team displayed this season, including its strong play in the NCCAA Championship. He is also grateful to the team’s seven seniors for all of their contributions to the program over the years.
“They leave some big shoes to fill and they certainly leave the program in better shape than they found it,” Reber said. “They are quality on and off the field and I could not be prouder.”
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