Men's Soccer Claims National Title on Venegas Goal
Delray Beach, FL - It seemed about as surreal as it could get but the Hastings College men's soccer team picked up its second national championship in school history defeating Rio Grande 1-0 on Saturday night.
Head Coach Aaron Champenoy talked about the feeling of being a national champ, "A complete and utter exhale at that point and jubilation. To see how hard these guys worked, the journey from what these guys started. It's really difficult to explain but its just unbelievable at the end of it." Champenoy said.
The first half really played out like both teams were trying to figure one another out without much activity from an offensive standpoint. Rio had three shots in the first half to none for the Broncos.
But Hastings would stay the course and then struck gold in the 57th minute when Eric Birighitti (FR/Perth, Australia) threaded a perfect through ball to the feet of Lucas Venegas (JR/Grand Island, NE) as he would find the back of the net for the 1-0 lead.
"We knew coming into this game that someone off the bench would have to do something for us," Champenoy said. "Four games in six days we needed someone to step up. The longer the game went we just needed to stay with it. It was a great break as Birighitti found Venegas with a great touch and found a great spot and tucked it in."
Two minutes later, it appeared as though the Broncos had taken a 2-0 lead when Marc Tautz (JR/Limburg, Germany) ripped a perfect shot to the left of the keeper finding the side net but he was called for offsides negating the goal.
As the game continued deep into the second half, coach Champenoy knew it was about time to start thinking about protecting the lead.
"We knew late in the game we were going to put Josh Horne (SR/Newcastle-Under-Lyne) in the game and rotate fresh legs in and play guys that hadn't played much but we needed to be fresh," Champenoy said.
Along with that change saw Bruno Moreira (SO/Divinopolis, Brazil) come into the game late as well to give the game some fresh legs.
Rio put some pressure on late but couldn't get one past Joe White (JR/London, England) and the back line as Hastings would hold on to win the national championship.
Coach Champenoy talked about that feeling when the clock struck 90:00, "It's surreal, I honestly feel like I'm dreaming, just waiting to wake up. We've put ourselves in position to make this happen and even though it has, it is still hard to believe."
"I told the guys early in the year that if we were going to do something special," Champenoy continued. "We would have to be the most blue collar team in the country. We believed in what we needed to do, get up early, work hard, have some heart and believe that we coud beat anyone in the country."
Hastings finishes the season 24-0-1 while also winning its second national title. It's first since winning it all back in 2010.
2016 NAIA Men's Soccer National Championship All-Tournament Team
Goalkeepers
Benjamin Martinez, Rio Grande
Joe White, Hastings
Forwards
Daniel Whitehall (SO/Warrington, England), Hastings
TJ Ifaturoti, Davenport
Pau Delgado, Rio Grande
Danton Irelan, Grand View
Midfielders
Tor Trosten (FR/Tromso, Norway), Hastings
Sam Blackman, Grand View
Tyler Collishaw, Davenport
Prince Idornigie,West Virginia Tech
Defenders
Jorge Guinovart, Rio Grande
Cori Hill, Grand View
Erik Tello (SO/Houston, TX), Hastings
Matt Redgrave, William Carey
National Championship Most Outstanding Offensive Player
Daniel Whitehall, Hastings
National Championship Most Outstanding Defensive Player
Jorge Guinovart, Rio Grande
National Championship Most Valuable Player
Joe White, Hastings
Nels Dahlquist Memorial Team Sportsmanship Award
Grand View (Iowa)
