CORVALLIS, Ore. – In less than 24 hours, the top-two seeded teams will compete for the 2022 Cascade Collegiate Conference Men’s Soccer Tournament Championship, presented by U.S. Bank.
CCC Tournament Page
It’s déjà vu as top-seeded Warner Pacific University faces second-seeded Oregon Tech in the tournament title game for the second year in a row.
Last year the Hustlin’ Owls won the championship in dramatic fashion with a 2-1 overtime victory.
The two squads will battle it out once again for the championship on Friday at 3 p.m. Pacific at Civic Park in Eugene, Ore. Live video can be found
here for a fee, while live stats are provided for free
here.
Both teams have secured their spots in the NAIA National Tournament after the Knights picked up the CCC’s first automatic qualifier (AQ) by clinching the regular-season championship, leaving the second AQ for whoever advanced to the CCC tournament finale.
No. 21-ranked WPU opened the tournament with a 4-1 victory over eighth-seeded The Evergreen State College. CCC Rize Laboratory Offensive Player of the Year Andrew Martinez scored the first goal for the Knights, before Erik Mattice netted the eventual game-winner off a penalty kick. Antonio Cipriano-Ojendiz and Brendon Leach also scored for WPU.
The next day, the Knights battled fifth-seeded Southern Oregon University for 110 minutes with neither team finding the back of the net. It came down to penalty kicks and Alexis Calderilla came up huge with a save in the shootout, while Brendon Leach, Martinez, Miguel Andalon-Ordaz, Matias Castano and Mattice each made their attempts to help WPU advance to the championship.
Oregon Tech, which is receiving votes in the latest NAIA poll, grabbed a 3-2 overtime victory over seventh-seeded Eastern Oregon University in the quarterfinals. The Owls battled from a 2-1 hole with Andrew Pasang scoring the equalizer and Cade O’Neill converting a penalty kick in extra time to lift OIT to the semifinals.
The Owls followed with a 2-0 blanking over third-seeded and No. 25-ranked Corban University to secure their spot in the championship game. Ellis Harwood scored the first goal for the Owls in the 55th minute, while John Sarna added some insurance in the 80th minute.
Just two weeks ago, WPU and OIT played to a 1-1 draw in the regular season. Martinez – who leads the NAIA in goals – scored for the Knights, while Pasang netted the goal for the Owls.
If a tie were to happen in the championship game, two 10-minute overtime periods would be played before a penalty kick shootout to determine the winner.