CORVALLIS, Ore. – The top-two seeds of the 2021 Cascade Collegiate Conference Men’s Soccer Tournament, presented by U.S. Bank, are set to square off for the championship trophy on Friday.
CCC Tournament Page
Top-seeded Warner Pacific University and second-seeded Oregon Tech will battle it out at noon Pacific at Civic Park in Eugene, Ore., for the tournament title after sharing the regular-season championship. Live video can be found
here for a fee, while live stats are provided for free
here.
WPU grabbed a 2-0 victory over eighth-seeded Northwest University in the first round of the tournament after posting a 20-to-8 shot advantage over the Eagles. Christian Bahena put the Knights on the board just before halftime in the 44
th minute before Hunter Leach added an insurance goal in the 63
rd minute.
The next day, the Knights battled fourth-seeded Corban University to a scoreless draw to send the two teams to the penalty spot for a shootout to determine who would earn a spot in the championship game. It took nine rounds, but WPU came out on top with eight made attempts to the Warrior’s seven, with Matias Castano scoring the final shootout attempt for the Knights.
No. 19-ranked Oregon Tech set the tone early in its quarterfinal matchup with The Evergreen State College, out-shooting the Geoducks 22-3 en route to a 2-0 victory. Reilly Combs put the Hustlin’ Owls on the board first in the 33
rd minute and less than 20 seconds later, Anthony Santillan found the back of the net to give the Owls a 2-0 win and advance to the semis.
In the semifinals, the Owls faced some adversity and found themselves trailing 2-0 to third-seeded Southern Oregon University. Jake Mitchell scored in the 68
th minute before Reilly Combs found the equalizer just 30 seconds before time expired to send the game into overtime. The two teams battled the two extra periods but had to go to a penalty kick shootout to decide who would play in the tournament championship, where the Owls converted five penalty kicks to the Raiders’ four to keep playing.
Earlier this year, with the regular-season title on the line, the Knights and Owls battled 110 minutes to a 1-1 draw to each earn a share of the CCC championship. Anthony Santillan scored for OIT in the 62
nd minute, but Bahena answered back for the Knights in the 70
th minute.
Both teams have secured their spots in the NAIA National Tournament. WPU picked up the CCC’s first automatic qualifier (AQ) after clinching the top seed in the conference tournament and OIT grabbed the second AQ by securing a spot in the CCC tournament championship with WPU.