Men’s soccer ends historic season in opening round of National Championship    

COLUMBIA, Mo. (Nov. 18, 2021) – The Point University men's soccer team traveled to Columbia, Missouri, to face Columbia College (Mo.) in the opening round of the NAIA National Championship tournament Thursday afternoon, and fell to the Cougars 3-0.

"Today, we made history in appearing in our first national tournament game in program history," Head Coach Mark Wozniak said. "We faced a very experienced program in Columbia who was in the final four of last year's tournament. I am so proud of our guys and what we accomplished this year and even though we lost today, we can be proud of what we have done."

Point entered the Columbia bracket as the No. 4 seed after winning the Appalachian Athletic Conference championship and earning an automatic bid. 

Within the first four minutes of action, No. 1 seed Columbia took its first shot of the game and quickly found its way into the lead, with Diego Navia connecting with Nathan Durdle to help the Cougars take a 1-0 lead. The Cougars would take six more shots in the half and limit Point to only one, which came in the final minute of action from Jeronimo Leguizamon.

In the second half, Tommy Eskew took the first shot of the half in an attempt at scoring the game equalizer, but Columbia would quickly take possession of the ball and go on to score its second goal off a corner kick from Carter Redford, who connected with Rece Gilmore who deflected the ball to Jackson Schrum. The Cougars were not done yet, as they scored their third and final goal of the game nearly 11 minutes later from Logan Mangrum.

The Skyhawks were unable to cut into Columbia's lead despite taking seven shots in the second half.

Columbia outshot Point 15-8 and 6-5 in shots on frame. Lorenzo Delvecchio, Eskew, and Leguizamon took two shots apiece, with Delvecchio and Leguizamon's shots both being on frame. Point forced Columbia goalkeeper Liam Gibbs to make five saves, and Point goalie, Julio Gomes, made three.

"We are AAC tournament champions for the first time and qualified for nationals. That is something we can be very proud of and we will take this experience and learn from it and be ready to come back next year. Lastly, we are so grateful and thankful for all of the support we received from Skyhawk Nation this year."

With the completion of Thursday's match, the Skyhawks finish the season 11-6-2.