Liberty Wins 2007 Big South Men's Soccer Championship
ROCK HILL, S.C. – Liberty’s Douglas Nyame and Cameron Chastain each scored opening half goals, which would be enough to claim the title of the 2007 Big South Men’s Soccer Championship Sunday afternoon at Eagle Field on the campus of Winthrop University. In five Conference Championship appearances, this marks the first time Liberty claimed the title to receive the League’s automatic bid to the NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship.
The Radford Highlanders got the early lead when Josh McCrary found the net at 6:38 for his second score of the tournament. McCrary took the ball down the right side of the field and kicked a cross into the left corner of the net, with Franklin Elimbi assisting on the play.
The Flames evened up the score at 33:54 and then took the lead one minute later. After several attempts by Liberty to get a corner kick into the net, Nyame was able to get his head on the ball and into the net, with the combined assist made by Joshua Boateng and Justin Willoughby. Chastain earned the game-leading score and his second goal of the tournament going one-on-one with the Radford keeper, Zach Roszel, and placing the ball into the bottom left corner of the net off a shot from the right side of the field. Adrian Bumbut contributed the assist.
After the first half, the No. 2 seeded Liberty had the lead with a five shot advantage to Radford’s three shots. The Flames also had four corner kick opportunities to the Highlanders’ two. Roszel had two saves in the opening half, while the Liberty keeper, Paul Gilbert, had one.
Liberty’s back-to-back goals in the first half of the game would be enough to top the Highlanders and earn LU its first Big South Championship. At the end of the game, Radford had a nine to six shot advantage and also had a nine to five corner advantage; however it was Liberty who came out with the win. Both goalies ended the game with two saves apiece.
Joshua Boateng was named Tournament MVP for his play in Liberty’s three wins. Joining Boateng on the All-Tournament Team were teammates Andrew Kappler, Justin Willoughby, Cameron Chastain; Paul Caruso, Davorian Husadzinovic, Josh McCrary from runner-up Radford; Kyle Russell and Dane Whitman from Coastal Carolina; Otto Loewy and John Gilkerson from Winthrop. Will Quarles (VMI), Scott Szymanski (UNC Asheville) and Michael Saryee (High Point) round out the All-Tournament squad.
Liberty improves to 13-4-2 on the year, while Radford drops to 11-9-0. It was the second meeting between Liberty and Radford in the championship game, as the contest was a rematch of the 1999 title match, which was won by the Highlanders in a penalty kick shootout following a scoreless draw after two overtimes.
The 2007 NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship bracket will be announced tomorrow, Monday, Nov. 19 between 5:30 and 6:00pm on ESPNews.
QUOTES
Liberty head coach Jeff Alder
“I said this since the beginning of the season. God took a group of ordinary men and did something extraordinary. I really feel he prepared us for this all year. I am very proud of my team. Radford was a great opponent and are a very well coached team. In the second half, Radford came out flying, but we were able to hold on to our lead, and I am very proud of them.”
Radford head coach Spencer Smith
“For eighty-eight minutes I thought we played a great game, but lost concentration for maybe two minutes. Give Liberty credit. They are definitely a worthy champion. We are proud of our efforts, just couldn’t get that equalizer. Our guys played good soccer. I am really proud of how they played the whole tournament. With a little luck today we could have got that equalizer.”