Hornets Beat Bowdoin, Square Off with Messiah for Championship
SAN ANTONIO, Texas --- The Lynchburg
College men's soccer team is heading to its first ever
Division-III NCAA National Championship game as they defeated
#6 Bowdoin College 2-1 in overtime on Friday afternoon in NCAA
Tournament play. LC will now face two-time defending national
champion Messiah College on Saturday at 2 p.m. EST.
Senior Stephen Brooks (Fairfax, VA/Paul VI) netted what might
have been the most important goal in Lynchburg history at 99:44 of
overtime to give the Hornets the win. With the score tied 1-1,
senior Zach Ward (Haymarket, VA/Battlefield) took a throw
in and lobbed it to the top of the box where Brooks was able to
head it past Bowdoin College goalie Dan Hicks with just 16 second
remaining in the first overtime period.
Bowdoin scored the first goal of the game in the second half when
Ben Brewster found the back of the net at the
53rd minute to put the Polar Bears up 1-0. The
Hornets would not give up however. Sophomore Scott Colman
(Yorktown, VA/York) deflected a shot of a Bowdoin defender to
tie the game at 1-1 at 87:59, which would send the game to
overtime.
Hornets freshman goalie Michael Releford (Blacksburg,
VA/Blacksburg) would finish the game with three saves, and was
pivotal in helping the Hornets earn their first trip to the NCAA
National Championship. The defense of Lynchburg helped Releford as
well and were able to stifle several chances in the second half
from Bowdoin. Hicks, made six saves for Polar Bears (15-2-3).
Lynchburg (20-4-1) will now head to the NCAA National Championship
on Saturday to face #3 Messiah (22-1-0) at 2 p.m. ET.
Live webcast can be found here: http://www.ncaa.com/allaccess/?media=214630
Live Stats: http://www.ncaa.com/gametracker/launch/gt_msoccer.html?event=963920&school=ncaa&sport=msoccer&camefrom=&startschool=&
This release is courtesy of the Lynchburg College
sports information department.