HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University men's soccer team are the 2023 Big South Conference Champions. The Panthers tied UNC Asheville 1-1, but HPU came out on top advancing on penalty kicks 4-3 on Saturday night in front of a packed Vert Stadium.
Site: Vert Stadium
Score: High Point 1, UNC Asheville 1
Records: High Point (10-3-5, 6-0-3), UNC Asheville (10-5-3, 4-2-1)
Head Coach Zach Haines: "First off, I want to give a ton of credit to Mick and UNC Asheville with the season they have had and pushing us every step of the way. Not only for the regular season race but tonight for the championship. They played a good game. Their guys worked extremely hard, and they made it a big challenge. For our guys, it's all about the mentality and the mental toughness. The ability to do whatever it takes for 110 minutes and penalties, they found a way to get it done. Tonight could have been a night where they got frustrated and derailed a little bit because we missed huge chances down the stretch, but they did not, and I am very happy and proud of these guys."
The game started mostly in possession of High Point. HPU started attacking early, earning themselves a corner kick.
Kaya Ignacio fired off the first shot of the night.
Asheville quickly gathered themselves and got one to fall to the back of the net. Sam Pitts-Eckersall was able to get past the High Point defenders and tap it past
Josh Caron.
High Point almost answered right away with the equalizer in the 18th minute.
Tony Pineda laid one up for
Brendan Krueger in the box, Krueger got a head on the ball finding it's way into the keepers arms.
The equalizer came in the 31st minute as Pineda crossed a beautiful ball to
Seth Antwi. Antwi took the feed and lasered it to the back of the net to tie it at one.
That took the game to the end of the first half.
The second half was a battle between the two teams. Chance after chance was the theme of the half. Nothing was able to fall as the Panthers had a few chances as time was winding down in regulation. The clock hit 90 minutes and it was still a 1-1 draw.
High Point headed into their second overtime stint in the Big South playoffs, this time with a title on the line.
Nothing came from either side of the ball as they played two 10-minute halves. Good defense and missed chances was the case for both teams.
Next came penalties.
Justin Stewart got in net for the Panthers as he lined up against the first Bulldog kicker of the night. Stewart made a sweet save to boost the confidence for HPU.
"Stewart was our guy for penalties as of a couple weeks ago," Haines said. "We obviously trained it leading up to the semifinal and trained it leading up to the final. We backed Justin to come up big. He is an elite shot stopper and showed in training how good he is on penalties."
Jefferson Amaya started it off for HPU with a strike that found the back of the net to go up 1-0 in PK's.
Antwi,
Finn McRobb and
Anthony Ramirez were called upon and all three scored, giving High Point the 4-3 advantage.
Stewart made the final save to crown High Point champions of the Big South once again!
Seth Antwi earned Big South Tournament Most Valuable Player while McRobb, Pineda and
Alex Abril were also named to the All-Tournament Team.
HPU has now won back-to-back Big South Conference Championship's, advancing them to the NCAA Tournament.
Zach Haines and his staff have been crowned champions three times in the last four years.
UP Next: The NCAA selection show will air on Monday, Nov. 13 at 1 p.m. on NCAA.com.
All Tournament Team:
Seth Antwi, HPU (Most Valuable Player)
Finn McRobb, HPU
Alex Abril, HPU
Tony Pineda, HPU
Edvin Grolimund, AVL
Brendan Herb, AVL
Aidan Whitlock, AVL
Jack Kilstrom, WU
Nick Guido, WU
Max Fisher, GWU
Santiago Hoyos, GWU
#GoHPU
