Men's Soccer 12/5/2019 5:00:00 PM CU Athletics

Tigers continue championship push in NCCAA semifinal against Grace College

KISSIMMEE, Fla. – The No. 1 seeded Tigers kickoff the NCCAA Semifinal matches as they meet No. 4 Grace College at 12 p.m. ET on Friday, Dec. 6.

Winning Pool B, by scores of 3-0 and 6-0, Campbellsville earned the overall No. 1 seed in the semifinal reseeding. Grace College finished second in the Pool C, but advanced to the semifinal on tiebreaker criteria.

PATH TO A CHAMPIONSHIP

The Tigers are two wins away from being crowned NCCAA National Champions.
With a win, the Tigers will meet the winners of Ottawa University Arizona and Mid-America Christian University on Saturday, Dec. 7 at 5 p.m. ET in the title match.

THE TIGERS LAST TIME OUT

Campbellsville won Pool B after winning on Monday over Bethesda University and defeating Judson on Wednesday.
In Wednesday's match, the Tiger offense pushed the Eagles from kickoff.
After developing some early opportunities, Connor Pugh had a beat on the defense. With a 1-on-1 with the GK, Pugh went to move around the keeper, forcing him to stick his handout to stop the goal. As the GK was outside of the box, this resulted in an early red card, allow CU to play one man up.
Pugh then got his goal six minutes later on an assist from Azad Iliozer, giving CU a 1-0 lead.
Campbellsville then scored five more off the feet of Gustav Oskarsson, Gustavo Izzo, Kalvin Semedo, and a pair from Iliozer.

SCOUTING GRACE COLLEGE

Grace enters the semifinal against the Tigers with a 10-7-3 record.
Out of the Crossroads League, the NAIA, Grace faced three teams mentioned in the NAIA top 25, as they went 0-1-2 in those matches.
The Lancers have played three common opponents as the Tigers in Thomas More, Judson, and Indiana Wesleyan. In these matches, Grace went 2-1, won all three of their matches against these teams.
Marcelo Talamas leads Grace's offense, scoring 15 goals on the season, ranking in the top 30 of the NAIA.
As a team, Grace has scored 43 goals, while allowing 28.
In goal, the Lancers have relied on Gonzazlo Salo and Colton Wottring. Salo has played in 15 of the 20 matches this season and has allowed 20 goals with 52 saves. Wottring has only started seven games this season, but has recorded 28 saves and eight goals.

HISTORY IN THE NCCAA TOURNAMENT

This match will only be the second ever NCCAA semifinal for the Tigers.
Campbellsville's highest finish in the NCCAA Tournament came in 2017 when they reached the semifinal before falling to Southwestern Christian, 2-1.
In that year, the Tigers advanced out of pool play after tying Southern Wesleyan, 0-0 and beating Bethel College, 1-0.
Last season, CU failed to make it out of pool play after defeating Warner, 2-1 and falling to Bethel 2-1.

200 WINS FOR COACH PRESTON

After Wednesday's 6-0 win over Judson, Coach Preston recorded his 200^th win of his career.
Coach Preston is in his 17^th year as head coach of the Tigers and has posted a 200-118-19 record in his tenure.
He has been named the Mid-South Conference Coach of the Year four times (2006, 2008, 2015, 2016), NSCAA/NAIA Region Coach of the Year once (2016) and carried the Tigers to the program's first two NAIA Tournament's in 2015 and 2016.

TIGERS BY THE NUMBERS

On the season, CU has spread their scoring out, as Marc Lawrence and Connor Pugh lead the way with eight goals. They are trailed by Gustavo Izzo and Azad Iliozer with seven, and Haylen West who has six.
As a team, the Tiger defense has been stellar, not allowing a goal in the tournament thus far. Campbellsville has 12 shutouts so far this season.
These numbers have aided Owen Stott to ranking 18^th nationally in goals against per game with 0.830.

UPCOMING FOR CU

With a win, the Tigers will advance to the NCCAA Championship on Friday, Dec. 7 where they will meet the winners of Ottawa University Arizona and Mid-America Christian at 5 p.m. ET.

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