DAYTON, Tenn. – Bryan College qualified for an NAIA national soccer tournament for the first time last year, losing at Southern Polytechnic in the first round.
The Lions have taken that a step further in 2010, hosting and winning a national first-round game and advancing to the final 16 at Orange Beach, Ala.
They still must fight for respect, however. Although Bryan (18-1-2) was ranked ninth in the final NAIA coaches’ poll, it was seeded 14th for the national tournament and opens Monday at 6 p.m. EST against third-seeded Hastings (21-0) from Nebraska.
NAIA national soccer tournamentsMonday (times EST)Decatur, Ala.: Lee women (17-2-1) vs Mobile (13-6-1), 5 p.m.Orange Beach, Ala.: Bryan men (18-1-2) vs Hastings (21-0), 6 p.m.
Longtime Lions coach Sandy Zensen has a positive perspective on the matchup.
“Actually, I like it,” he said. “I think we’re going to be overlooked. It puts us in the position that we’ve got nothing to lose and there’s a lot more pressure on them than us. We can go full bore, and if we win, some will be surprised and some of us won’t be.
“I expect Hastings to be a solid team. They’re averaging four goals or so a game, and you don’t do that and go undefeated if you’re not a good team. But I like the challenge, and I think our team does too.”
Bryan counters with a stout defense led by the Appalachian Athletic Conference’s last two players of the year, senior Daniel O’Kane from New Zealand and junior Harry Sherwood from England, who also have scored five goals apiece this season with three and five assists. The Lions have recorded 15 shutouts and given up only eight goals in their 21 games. They have allowed only two goals since tying Tennessee Wesleyan 2-2 on Sept. 22, yet all-conference keeper Rodrigo Pigatto has averaged only 2.4 saves a game.
“We’ve been attacking more this year, so teams have been playing very defensively against us,” said O’Kane, the AAC’s top honoree in 2009.
He had no problem with Sherwood supplanting him as player of the year.
“I was proud of him for getting it,” O’Kane said. “I would’ve voted for him as well. He’s been amazing this year.”
Four freshmen play a lot for the Lions. Two, in fact, started on defense in their 2-1 overtime win over Columbia (Mo.) in the first round of the national tournament. But Zensen said the team’s trip this week was years in the making.
“It started with a conscious decision four years ago,” he said, referring to his more aggressive use of recruiting services to bring in top international talent – nine countries are represented on the roster – and increase the overall talent and depth.
“We’ve got guys on our bench who could’ve started for any team we’ve played this year, without a doubt,” Zensen said. “That gives us a lot of tactical freedom, and we don’t always start the same 11.”
Bennie Bardales and Ricky Angel are the top goal scorers with 10 and nine, and Curt Hays and Johannes Muller have 11 and nine assists, but 10 Lions have at least five goals or five assists.
O’Kane said he liked in his early talks with Zensen “how personal he was, deeper than soccer.” Sherwood was courted early and earnestly by former Bryan assistant Joey Johnson but committed to another American school before arrangements fell through. Johnson wished him well at the time and said Bryan would welcome him if things didn’t work out, and that proved to be the case.
And even though he played little and didn’t start a game as a freshman, Sherwood did not consider leaving.
“There’s just a different feeling about this place and these people,” he said. “It’s like one big family. I know that sounds like a bit of a cliche, but that’s exactly what it is.”
Said O’Kane: “We’ve got people from everywhere, but somehow we’ve been brought together in such a tight family. We care about each other. You want to work for the player beside you, and our bench always is up cheering.”
Zensen admitted that he promised O’Kane and Sherwood wives if they came to Bryan, and O’Kane got married this past summer to a woman he met when she worked briefly at the school.
He also became a Christian since he arrived on campus. He had no interest in the religious aspect of the school and actually was ready to leave during his first semester, but he said he was shown “a lot of love” and in time grew to appreciate the source of that love.
“I was baptized in front of the team last year, which was an amazing thing to go through,” O’Kane said. “I owe a lot to this college and to the people here, definitely.”
If the Lions get past Hastings, they could face Southern Poly again in the quarterfinals Wednesday.
“I think we have nothing to fear at all,” O’Kane said. “The preparation of this team and the players we’ve got – I’ve got a lot of confidence in us.”
* The second-seeded Lee women, NAIA champions the last two years, open play at 5 p.m. EST Monday at Decatur, Ala., against Mobile, which the Lady Flames beat 2-0 on Aug. 28 and 2-1 in the SSAC tournament final.