ATLANTA, GA - Trinity University Men's Soccer (11-2-6) are SAA Tournament Champions for the first time in program history. After 110 scoreless minutes in which they controlled almost every one, the Tigers held their nerve in a penalty shootout on Sunday afternoon, beating No. 4 seed Rhodes College (10-3-6) 4-2 on penalties at Oglethorpe University to lift the title and secure the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Jayden Schell (Dallas, Texas / Plano) saved two Rhodes penalties, and
Cade Dougan (Austin, Texas / St. Stephens Episcopal) buried the decisive kick to send the entire Trinity squad, bench and coaching staff charging onto the field.
Rhodes arrived in the final on the back of an upset, having knocked out top-seeded and 5th-ranked Southwestern 1-0 in Friday's semifinal. It was also a rematch of the regular-season finale just over a week earlier, when the Tigers beat the Lynx 2-0 at Saint Mary's Hall. If Trinity had beaten Rhodes once, the Lynx had shown on Friday that they knew how to frustrate a favorite.
The pattern was set from the opening whistle. Trinity had the ball, while Rhodes sat deep and waited to strike on the counter. By the end of the afternoon, the Tigers had held 77 percent of possession and completed 737 passes to Rhodes' 146, a gap that told the story of a game played almost entirely in one half of the field.
Trinity was at its most dangerous in the first half.
Eduardo Parra (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma / Casady School) tested Rhodes goalkeeper Brauner Boegner in the 12th minute, and
Hodge MacDonald (Hertford, England / Haileybury) forced him low to his left eight minutes later. Corner after corner caused chaos in the Rhodes box, with the Tigers going agonizingly close on several occasions.
Leo Jauregui (San Antonio, Texas / Johnson) drew another save in the 35th minute, and
Joey Perryman (Flower Mound, Texas / Flower Mound) dragged two efforts just wide either side of it. Rhodes' only real threat came just before the half-hour mark, when Sucato's effort following a corner was gathered comfortably by Schell. By the break, Trinity led 9-2 in shots, but the scoreboard still read 0-0.
The second half followed the same script, even if the clear-cut chances slowed up. Trinity kept control of possession and territory as Rhodes dropped ever deeper.
Milo Williams (Austin, Texas / University of Texas HS) flashed a shot across the face of goal and just wide of the far post in the 64th minute, and Jauregui whipped in a string of unbelievable balls from wide that somehow found no Trinity head. In the 78th minute, Dougan drove a low effort toward the bottom left corner, only for Boegner to get down and push it away. Rhodes did not register a single shot in the second half.
As the game went to overtime, it became clear the Lynx had settled on a plan. Survive, and take their chances from the spot. It was a plan that would prove to be a grave miscalculation.
Julian Lopez (Austin, Texas / St. Stephens Episcopal) forced Boegner into a save in the 93rd minute, and Williams fired over at the end of the first period. In the second overtime, Trinity poured forward with five shots in ten minutes. Parra and
Thomas Kay (Stansted Mountfitchet, England / Bishop's Stortford) both went close, and
Luke Mayfield (Dallas, Texas / JJ Pearce) twice forced Boegner into saves in the final four minutes, the second coming moments after Miller was booked for the game's only yellow card. Boegner finished with seven saves, and after 110 minutes of near-total Trinity control, it would have been a disservice to the game had anyone other than the Tigers walked away with the trophy.
Yet as the final whistle of overtime blew, a different feeling crept in. For all of Trinity's dominance, there was a nagging sense that perhaps the soccer gods were not on the Tigers' side, and that this might simply be Rhodes' day. The tension was suffocating. Trinity had not forgotten last year's SAA semifinal, as they lost to Berry on penalties, and for the seniors, there were flashbacks to their freshman year, when the SCAC final slipped away to St. Thomas University in a shootout.
This time, the Tigers held their nerve.
Mayfield stepped up first and produced his trademark, unsaveable stutter step, sending Boegner the wrong way and calmly slotting the ball into the bottom right corner. Rhodes' Holsinger answered with an unconvincing kick, but one that still sent Schell the wrong way. Next came
Alex Baltov (Shreveport, Louisiana / Caddo Parish Magnet), who jogged to the spot, placed the ball down and smashed it across his body into the right side of the net, well out of Boegner's reach. Janes leveled it again for the Lynx, once more sending Schell the wrong way.
Then came the twist. Parra, Trinity's leading scorer, struck his kick well, only to watch it glance off the left post and out. For the first time all afternoon, Rhodes had the upper hand, and for a moment it felt as though the script had already been written.
Schell had other ideas. The Trinity goalkeeper dove low to his right to deny Moonshower and keep the shootout level at 2-2.
That left Perryman with arguably the hardest job of the day. Coming off the bench cold to take the highest-pressure kick of the shootout. There was clearly ice in his veins, but nothing cold about his feet, as he blasted the ball across his body and into the top left corner to put Trinity ahead.
Standing big in his goal once again, Schell came up clutch, diving low to his right to save Haraway's attempt. Realization swept over the Trinity bench. One more kick, and the program's first SAA Championship was theirs.
Up stepped Dougan. Cool, calm, and collected, he strode to the ball and side-footed it into the left side of the goal, sending Boegner the wrong way and sparking scenes of pure jubilation. The entire Trinity team, bench and coaching staff rushed the field, piling on top of Dougan and Schell in a mixture of joy and relief, knowing they had secured an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and won the first SAA Championship in program history.
It was a performance from a team determined to win, and one that showed the quality and desire of a side with every intention of going deep in the tournament.
Trinity finished with a 19-3 edge in shots, 7-1 in shots on goal and 10-2 in corners. Schell earned his fifth consecutive clean sheet, and the Tigers extended their unbeaten run to 16 matches. Schell and Mayfield were named to the SAA All-Tournament Team, while Dougan was named SAA Tournament Most Valuable Player.
Up Next
Trinity Men's Soccer now awaits the NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championship Selection Show on Monday, November 9th at 10 a.m. (CT) to learn its postseason destination.
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