BANNER ELK, NC--The Lees-McRae College Bobcats soccer season
came to a close Saturday evening, falling 2-0 to the University of
Montevallo Falcons in the 2007 NCAA Division II Men's Soccer
Championships at Tate Field. The Bobcats finish their season with
an all time program best record of 21-2-1, while the Falcons
improve to 18-3-2 and earn in berth in the Final Four.
The Falcons Jonathon Maloney registered both goals for the
Falcons, the first coming in the 15th minute of the game. Just
over twelve minutes later, Maloney would pick up his second of the
game and team leading 22nd of the season to close the scoring for
the half and the game.
As they had all season, the Bobcats started the second half
strong, generating opportunities with well placed crosses and one
touch passing, but were unable to finish. The Falcons, ranked #18
in the NSCAA/adidas National Poll, held the Bobcats off the board
through the half, clearing the Bobcats' service and corner kick
attempts to maintain the shutout and continue their season in the
National Semifinals.
The Bobcats registered seven of their eight corner kicks in the
second half while conceding none and also outshot the Falcons 13-11
over 90 minutes.
While the Bobcats, ranked #2 in the National Poll, have
their storybook season come to close, much can be said of the
accomplishments made by Head Coach Chris Whalley and assistants,
alumni Nick Young '02 and Calvin Dixon '05. The Bobcats' national
ranking is the highest in program history, while the 21 wins is
also a single season program best. Riding a program record 16
consecutive wins, the Bobcats finished 2007 as both the Conference
Carolinas Regular Season Champions and the Conference Carolinas
Tournament Champions, the first time a team has ever earned both
the season and tournament titles in the history of the conference
formerly known as the Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Conference.
Another first, the Bobcats qualified for the NCAA Men's Soccer
Championships, setting the bar high in their first trip to the
dance, earning a spot in the national quarterfinal with an Elite
Eight appearance after winning a pair of games to claim the NCAA
Southeast Regional Championship.
Post Game Comments:
"We didn't play as well as we could have today. We battled hard
and played scrappy but we gave the ball away too often, and it made
a difference. Montevallo is a good team, all of the teams are at
this stage, and we wish them all the best. Our season has ended
and that part is disappointing, but I am so proud of this team.
Our record, winning the conference double, the boys in the room can
certainly hold their heads high."
- Bobcats Head Coach Chris Whalley
"We didn't quite play our best for the full 90 minutes.
Montevallo performed better than us today, and we've got to give
them credit for that. They took advantage of our mistakes and
capitalized."
- Bobcats SR Captain Diego Cordeiro
"First I'd like to thank Lees-McRae for hosting a great event.
The atmosphere here was great to play in and the fans were
awesome. We had a good game plan coming in and stuck to it.
Fortunately things worked out, and we scored two goals off of two
mistakes."
- Falcons Head Coach Ryan Pratt
"We put out a great team effort tonight...everyone. Whether you
play two minutes or ninety minutes, we all put our best out
there."
- Falcons JR Jonathan Maloney
PICTURED TOP LEFT: 2007 Conference Carolinas and Daktronics
Southeast Region Player of the Year Berin Boracic (Orlando, FL)
PICTURED FIRST BELOW: 2007 Conference Carolinas Scoring Champion
Lee Squires (Sheffield, England)
PICTURED SECOND BELOW: The Bobcats after winning the Conference
Carolinas Tournament Championship
