The Bruins scored two second half goals to shutout #3 Trinity Baptist College 2-0 to capture their second consecutive NCCAA DII South Region Championship. In addition to securing the region championship today, Victor Oladipo became the all-time leading goal scorer in program history.
"I am so proud of the team," said Coach Greg Fulton. "This was a massive step for us to get to Nationals, and we earned the right to say that."
The Bruins came into today's match on the heels of a massive 10-0 victory over Johnson University (FL) in the semifinal round of the region tournament. #3 Trinity Baptist College upset #2 Pensacola Christian College 2-1 to advance to Saturday's region championship final.
This was the third meeting for the two teams this season with the Bruins shutting them out in both of their earlier meetings.
"It was a really weird game for us, but we need to be able to win a weird game and that's what we showed today," said Fulton
It was win or go home for both teams as they fought hard to get the first goal. The Bruins would outshoot their opponent 8-1 in the first half, but the first 45 minutes ended with both teams knotted at zero.
Coming out of the halftime break, the Bruins got off to a quick start as Peter Waddy would send the ball from the far corner to James McCarty who right in front of the net would turn and score to break the scoreless tie.Â
The Bruins would use the momentum of their first goal to continue to press and find the next one. Ten minutes later Gasheed Lareche would make a run down the far side of the field and pass the ball towards the net where Victor Oladipo would slide and connect with the ball to score the second goal of the evening. With his goal today, Victor Oladipo became the all-time leading goal scorer in Bruins men's soccer history with 34 goals, surpassing Matt Moore's previous record of 33 goals.Â
"Victor is one of our most lethal players as you can see by the record," said Fulton. "But he's also one of the most humble guys on the team and works hard no matter what team we play. I hope to see his name up there for a long time, and I hope he can keep going and score some more!"
The Bruins held on to their lead and finished the game 2-0 to be named the NCCAA DII South Region Champions.
"We'll look at this game some, but we'll just focus on what we've been doing all year as we prepare for a much tougher test in a couple of weeks," said Fulton.
The Bruins will head into the NCCAA DII National Tournament with a winning 14-2-2 record and undefeated in region play. More tournament information will be posted to our website as we get closer to Nationals.
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