Preview: CCC Men's Soccer Championships presented by U.S. Bank
Willamalane Sports Complex | Springfield, Ore. | Tournament Central
FRIDAY'S GAMES (CCC QUARTERFINALS)
11 a.m. – #8 College of Idaho vs. #1 Southern Oregon
11 a.m. – #7 Evergreen vs. #2 Rocky Mountain
2 p.m. – #6 Northwest vs. #3 Corban
2 p.m. – #5 Oregon Tech. vs. #4 Northwest Christian
SATURDAY'S GAMES (CCC SEMIFINALS)
4 p.m. – Highest remaining seed vs. Lowest remaining seed
4 p.m. – Next highest seed vs. Next lowest seed
MONDAY'S GAME (CCC CHAMPIONSHIP)
12 p.m. – Semifinal winners
LA GRANDE – Six weeks after the regular season began, the Cascade Collegiate Conference men’s soccer race wasn’t decided until its final moments: Ties that shouldn’t have been forged were, a golden goal that shouldn’t have gone in did, and a team that’d never been crowned was. With the objective turning now to postseason survival, the excitement will be packed into four days at the CCC Championships presented by U.S. Bank.
Southern Oregon and Rocky Mountain (Mont.) head the eight-team tournament field after sharing the regular season title with matching 11-1-1 records. The Raiders won the tiebreaker based on the head-to-head result, thereby taking the No. 1 seed and the CCC’s first automatic bid to the NAIA Championships.
Hosted by Northwest Christian at Springfield’s Willamalane Sports Complex for the third year in a row, it starts with the quarterfinal round Friday at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on adjacent fields. The tournament is not bracketed; instead, the highest remaining seed will play the lowest remaining seed in Saturday’s 4 p.m. semifinals. The championship game is slated for noon Monday, and the CCC’s second automatic bid will be awarded to the winner – unless that winner is SOU, in which case it would go to the other finalist.
Tourney at a Glance:
– In nine years since the tournament returned, the regular-season champion or co-champion has prevailed eight times.
Corban won the title last year, defeating Providence (Mont.) 3-0 in the championship match, and has captured three of the last four overall.
–
Rocky Mountain, which won the tourney championship in 2015 (its first year as part of the circuit), hasn’t lost since a 3-0 setback against SOU in the CCC opener for both teams in Billings. The Bears are, however, the only higher seed that didn’t defeat their first-round opponent during the regular season – tying Evergreen, 1-1, last Friday to snap a 10-game winning streak. They’ve qualified for the national tourney five years in a row.
– After going 0-5 in its non-conference slate,
SOU claimed its first title in the team’s third year of existence by notching an NAIA-leading 10 shutouts. The Raiders – still seeking their first tournament victory – hadn’t given up a goal in 627 games minutes until a 2-1 defeat of Carroll (Mont.) in the regular-season finale, which Mitchell Pinney won in the 109th minute on a shot that initially hit the crossbar.
– The No. 4 vs. No. 5 matchup features the two surprises of the tournament:
Northwest Christian and
Oregon Tech. In the CCC preseason poll, NCU and OIT were picked to finish 11th and ninth, respectively. The Beacons are making their first-ever postseason appearance, while the Owls are seeking their first-ever postseason win.
– One tam that won’t mind making the road trip is sixth-seeded
Northwest (Wash.): Outscored 16-6 in CCC games on their home field, the Eagles went 6-0-1 on the road in conference play.
– Seventh-seeded
Evergreen is dangerous not only because it features one of the CCC’s top playmakers – Angel Trejo-Delgado, who recorded 10 goals and two assists in conference action – but because it is one of the hardest teams to pin down. Since the start of last year, the Geoducks have eight CCC draws; no other team has more than three.
–
College of Idaho, the No. 8 seed, will finish with a record of .500 or better for the first time since 2010, rebounding from last year’s 3-10 CCC campaign behind Carter Perry’s 10 goals and five assists. The Yotes last won a postseason game in 2008.
–
Rocky (48 goals) and
Corban (42) were far and away the top-scoring teams in CCC play; OIT and SOU, both third on the list, had 28 goals. Corban senior Timur Zhividze, the CCC Offensive Player of the Year, led all players in points for the second year in a row and bring 59 career goals and 30 assists into his final postseason.