CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Warner Pacific University men’s soccer team was named the Under Armour Team of the Week for Nov. 7-13, 2022, the Cascade Collegiate Conference announced Sunday.
No. 21-ranked WPU entered the 2022 CCC Men’s Soccer Tournament, presented by U.S. Bank, as the top seed and went on to win its first tournament championship since 2009.
The Knights opened the tournament with a 4-1 victory over eighth-seeded The Evergreen State College before taking fifth-seeded Southern Oregon University to penalty kicks in the semifinals. WPU won the shootout 5-3 to advance to their second-straight CCC tournament championship game, once again facing Oregon Tech in the finale.
After a scoreless 90 minutes, the championship game went into overtime with two 10-minute periods with no golden goal after a new overtime rule was passed heading into this year.
Just two minutes before the first overtime period expired, Hunter Leach broke through for the Knights as Erik Mattice drove a cross into the 18-yard box and Leach tucked it away.
WPU wasn’t done from there, however, and scored again in the 103
rd minute as Andrew Martinez – who leads the NAIA in scoring – got in behind the Owl defense to put the Knights up 2-0.
In the 107
th minute, the Knights drew a penalty kick and Matias Castano stepped up to the spot and sealed the 3-0 victory.
The Knights find out who they will face in the NAIA National Tournament on Monday at 10 a.m. Pacific on the
NAIA YouTube Channel.