Presbyterian Wins 2017 Big South Men's Soccer Championship
Connor Behrend saved the fifth penalty kick attempt by High Point to secure the the first Big South Championship for the Presbyterian College men's soccer team Sunday afternoon in High Point, N.C. The Blue Hose (6-8-5) overcame missing their first PK attempt, winning, 4-3, after tying 0-0 in regulation and two overtimes, to advance to the NCAA Tournament.
The first half of this game was played out very similarly to the Blue Hose last game at Radford and the last time PC came to High Point on October 28 as neither team would find the back of the net. Both teams had a couple of good opportunities though as the teams swapped yellow cards half-way through the first half.
The yellow card called on PC happened just outside the box which led to a free kick for High Point (10-5-4) from about 20 yards out, it was off to the left side of the goal and the High Point attacker was unable to curve it in to the net as it went wide right.
Presbyterian had an opportunity of their own on a free kick with about four minutes left in the half.Adrian Edo Martin’s shot was on frame but hit directly at High Point’s goal keeper Keegan Meyer. High Point had one more good look at the goal with 30 seconds left in the half but the shot was hit to hard and went high.
In the second half High Point was on the offensive as they would rack up 12 second half shots, only one was on frame. The Blue Hose would have a couple of opportunities to score as well as they would take four shots, two of which were on frame.
From the 70-minute mark to the 80-minute mark High Point took three shots that missed wide by the narrowest of margins. Despite being off-frame these three shots were the best opportunities to score for either team in the 110 minutes of action. The goal keepers combined for seven saves in the game but all of them were shots directly at them.
In the overtime periods the Blue Hose were the team attacking more as they got two shots off, one on frame while High Point was unable to get a single shot off in the 20 minutes of overtime.
For the second game in a row the Blue Hose would advance to the next round of play via penalty kicks. High Point shot first in the PK’s section of the game. The Blue Hose first attempt would get saved by Meyer. High Point hit their first three attempts and with the Blue Hose hitting their next two as well High Point would lead 3-2 going into the fourth kick. High Points fourth kick would be missed high as Siggi Bennonyson, the player who scored his first career goal to beat PC with two seconds left in regulation in the first meeting between the two schools. Edo Martin would hit the fourth attempt for PC to tie it at 3-3. Behrend would record the save on High Point’s fifth kick and Ricardo Hernandez would tally the winning PK giving the Blue Hose the 4-3 advantage.
2017 Big South Men’s Soccer All-Tournament Team
Ricardo Hernandez, MF, Presbyterian (MVP)
Sergio Pinto, MF, Presbyterian
Adrian Edo Martin, MF, Presbyterian
Connor Behrend, GK, Presbyterian
Rashid Tetteh, D, High Point
Jonathan Bolanos, F, High Point
Johnny Fenwick, D, High Point
Pepe Segarra, MF, Liberty
Kevin Mendoza, MF, Liberty
Fraser Colmer, D, Radford
Myles Yorke, D, Radford
Jake Beyer, GK, Gardner-Webb
Ian Rees, MF, Campbell