Bellevue advances to Independent Tournament championship
OMAHA, Neb. – Two top-10 teams in NAIA men’s soccer advanced to the Independent Tournament championship as host, Bellevue University, and Park University won their matches in the semi-finals at Tranquility Park. Bellevue University downed the University of Great Falls, 1-0, in overtime and Park University was able to get past Westminster College, 2-0. The Bruins and Pirates will once again meet for the championship and the right to advance to the NAIA National Tournament opening round scheduled for November 22.
Bellevue improves to 13-3-1 overall winning their 10th straight match and 6th straight at home. Park University advances into Saturday with a record of 11-2-3 as two seasons will end for the representative from the Frontier Athletic Conference. The University of Great Falls will have their season close out with a record of 8-8-1 as Westminster will head back home with a 9-7-2 record.
In the first contest, Bellevue and the University of Great Falls played 90 minutes of regulation to a 0-0 tie needing overtime to decide the match. In the extra time and with less than two minutes remaining, Bellevue got a cross from Tom White that was passed along off the head of Adam Hooi to Tom Garrick (header) into the back of the net for the match winner.
Tom Garrick led the Bruins with 7 shots, 4 on goal, as Adam Hooi, Julio Estrada and Tom White contributed 3 shots each. Bellevue finished with a 15 shot advantage (23-8) getting a complete match shutout from Sebastian Narvaez. The sophomore keeper from Bellevue had 2 saves in the match playing all 98-plus minutes.
Jace Cutrer and David Jimenez had 3 shots each in the loss getting one each from Kantey Locoh and Marcelino Gonzalez. Zach Johnson played well in goal for the Argonauts with 6 saves in 98 minutes. Great Falls had one corner kick, 5 fouls and were called for 6 offsides.
In the final match of the afternoon, Park University needed 56 minutes to put up their first goal to grab a goal advantage. James Katawja was fouled in the box on an attempted clear by Westminster College and connected on the penalty kick giving the Pirates a 1-0 lead. Park scored an insurance goal very late in the match at the 88:16 mark from James Katawja, his second of the night, on an assist from Adam Tayani.
Park University had 10 shots in the match taken by five different players, James Katawja and Ramone Palmer leading the team with 3 shots each. Tazou Ali Tagba added 2 shots in the victory as Michael Eade finished the match in goal with a shutout. Eade turned away 4 shots playing all 90 minutes in goal.
Westminster College had 6 shots in the match, 3 from Mark Stoker to lead the way getting 2 from Spencer Luczak. Matt Smith added the team’s final shot with 4 of the teams 6 shots on goal. Val Campbell had 4 saves in the loss playing 90 minutes in goal. Westminster and Park combined for 28 fouls, 14 each, as they finished the match recorded 2 corner kicks respectively.