#3 Coastal Carolina Wins Big South Men's Soccer Championship
HIGH POINT N.C. – Coastal Carolina’s Joseph Kabwe scored a golden goal five minutes into overtime to lead No. 3 seed Coastal Carolina past the fifth seeded Winthrop Eagles, 1-0, in the Big South Men’s Soccer title game Sunday afternoon at Albion Millis Stadium on the campus of High Point University. Coastal Carolina claims its Big South-record third-straight Men’s Soccer Tournament championship and will be making its fifth-straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2001.
Kabwe found the back of the net off on an assist from John Ferguson from nine yards out of the box to lead the Chanticleers to the 1-0 win.
Winthrop, playing a man down for most of the game, had an opportunity to score in the 44th minute during a penalty kick from five yards out. However, Coastal’s Aaron Weant made an incredible diving save to keep the game knotted at 0-0.
Weant posted two saves in box for the Chanticleers, while Patrick Mitrovich posted four saves for the Eagles. Coastal out-shot Winthrop by a margin of 13-6.
Coastal Carolina (11-8-1) receives the Conference’s automatic berth to the 2005 NCAA Tournament, which begins Friday, Nov. 18 or Sat. Nov. 19, at campus sites. Pairings will be announced Monday, Nov. 14, at 4:00pm EST live on ESPNews. Coastal is riding a seven-game win streak into the NCAA Tournament. Winthrop ends its season at 12-8-1.
CCU’s midfielder Kabwe was named the Tournament’s Most Valuable Player and earned a spot on the All-Tournament team, which is as follows:
2005 Big South Men’s Soccer All-Tournament Team
Joseph Kabwe, Coastal Carolina (MVP)
Kyle Russell, Coastal Carolina
Patrick Robertson, Coastal Carolina
Jordie Hughes, Coastal Carolina
Joseph Kabwe, Coastal Carolina
Dustin Bybee, Winthrop
Saidi Isaac, Winthrop
Sean Weron, Winthrop
Josh Hanna, VMI
Charles Nweke, VMI
Thimo Langner, Birmingham-Southern
Karim Dietz, Birmingham-Southern
Patrick Althoff, High Point
Patrick Colas, Radford
Grant Gilmore, UNC Asheville
Osei Telesford, Liberty
QUOTES
Coastal Carolina Coach Shaun Docking
“I am really pleased with our efforts tonight against a very good Winthrop team. I thought they played better than us, especially with a man down. We showed a lot of character coming out with the win.”
Winthrop Coach Rich Posipanko
“It’s unfortunate, we played a man down for most of the championship game. I couldn’t be more proud of the guys’ effort. When you miss a PK, you don’t give yourself a chance to win.”