By Ron Smith
April 19, 2021
 
(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) Westmont Men's Soccer (7-1-1), will take on the Warriors of Corban (Ore.) on Thursday in the first round of the NAIA Men's Soccer National Championship Opening Round - Santa Barbara Bracket. Westmont, who will serve as the host for the four-team tournament, has been designated the number two seed while Corban (8-1-1) is seeded third.
 
The other semifinal match-up will feature the Bobcats of UC Merced (8-0), who are seeded fourth, against the top-seeded Eagles of Central Methodist (19-1) out of Missouri.
 
Semifinals will be played on Thursday at Westmont's Thorrington Field. The two Warrior teams – Westmont and Corban – will kick off at 10:30 a.m. with UC Merced and Central Methodist scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. start.
 
Corban, who is making its eighth NAIA Championship appearance, earned an automatic berth into the NAIA National Championship as the winner of the Cascade Conference West Division. The Warriors from Oregon posted a 6-1-1 record in conference, losing 5-1 to Warner Pacific (Ore.) on March 28 but then defeating the same team the next day 2-1.
 
Corban enters the tournament as the 24th overall seed.
 
Westmont and Corban have not faced any common opponents this season.
 
As a team, Corban has outscored its opponents 37-8. Matheus Giron - an All-American senior midfielder from Sao Paulo, Brazil - has scored 12 goals and tallied six assists this season. Senior forward Noe Favila of Carlsbad, Calif., has added another five goals and seven assists. The Warriors from the north have had 11 different goal scorers this season.
 
Goalkeeper Justin Keegan, a sophomore from Troutdale, Ore., has allowed eight goals in nine games (830 minutes) for a goals-against average of 0.87. He has recorded 16 saves.
 
Westmont and Corban have previously met on the pitch four times with Westmont holding a 2-0-2 advantage. The last match-up was on September 8, 2018, with the Montecito Warriors prevailing 3-1 on their home turf.
 
UC Merced won the California Pacific Conference regular season title and then claimed the Cal Pac Tournament championship to gain its entry into the national championship for the fifth time. UC Merced is the 30th overall seed.
 
The Bobcats are averaging 3.75 goals per game and have not scored less than two goals in any contest.
 
Like Corban, eleven different players have scored for the Bobcats, including junior forward Andrew Lua from Fresno, who has tallied eight goals and three assists. Senior midfielder Juan Flores has notched five goals and four assists.
 
Marco Sobrevilla and Brycen Miller have shared the goalkeeping responsibilities with Sobrevilla getting the lion's share of minutes. The Bobcats have not allowed a single goal this season.
 
Central Methodist is the two-time defending NAIA National Champion and the top-ranked team in the NAIA. Their only loss in 18 games was on the road at NCAA Division I Central Arkansas on March 5. The loss snapped a 32-game winning streak that stretched back to September 7, 2018.
 
The Eagles cruised to the Heart of America Conference regular season championship with a 12-0 record before claiming the HAC tournament championship. It is Central Methodist's fourth appearance in the national championship.
 
Central Methodist has outscored its opponents 62-15, led by Tom Irion of Stuttgart, Germany, who has tallied 10 goals and one assist. Christian Sanchez from Bogata, Columbia has tallied six goals and one assist. Marcos German – an NAIA All-American who hails from Madrid, Spain - leads the team with nine assists.
 
Seventeen different Eagles have scored this year.
 
Goalkeeper Stefano Camerlengo (15-1) has produced a goals-against average of 0.880. In 17 games he has allowed 14 goals and tallied 39 saves.
 
Westmont, which is the tournament's 12th seed overall, won the right to play in the championship by defeating Ottawa (Ariz.) 2-1 in the GSAC Championship last Friday night. The Warriors also won the GSAC West title with a 5-0-1 season record. Westmont's only loss this season came on February 10 to NCAA Division II Point Loma Nazarene.
 
Junior Samuel Tuscano of San Clemente and freshman Braeden Pryor of Tacoma, Wash., lead the Warriors in scoring with five goals apiece. Westmont has seen 12 different players record a goal this year.
 
Måns Ingvarson from Malmo, Sweden, has defended the net for the Warriors this season, allowing just four goals over eight games for a goals-against average of 0.50.
 
This will be Westmont's 20th appearance in national championship play.
 
The winners of Thursday's semifinal games will meet at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday on Westmont's Lovik Field to play for the right to advance to the NAIA Final Site in Columbia County, Georgia.