JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Bellarmine University men's soccer team's record-breaking season came to a heartbreaking end, as did the illustrious head-coaching career of
Tim Chastonay.
After Bellarmine rallied late to equalize with two goals in less than two minutes, North Florida scored early in overtime to capture a 3-2 win in the ASUN Championship finals Saturday night at Hodges Stadium.
The contest marked the last for Chastonay at Bellarmine after 28 seasons, as he is retiring from head coaching but will remain at the university as the Senior Associate AD. His indelible mark on the program included the first Division I-era regular-season title in any sport in BU athletics as the Knights (8-4-5) secured the ASUN Gold Division crown.
Reigning ASUN champion North Florida (12-5-1) defended its title as Paul Schacherer accounted for the golden goal less than two minutes into overtime with a header on the back side of a throw-in. The Ospreys won the Graphite Division title as the matchup pitted the two divisional one-seeds against each other.
Things looked bleak for Bellarmine after North Florida took a 2-0 lead early in the second half. BU had some misfortune as it appeared that both of those Ospreys' goals — the second one without question — glanced off a Knight and changed the trajectory of the shots, both of which may have otherwise been handled by redshirt senior goalkeeper
Peter Van Euwen.
North Florida's defense was stifling for much of the match, but Bellarmine capitalized on an opening in the 80th minute. After making a strong run to the top of the box, redshirt junior midfielder
Alex Halevy crossed to sophomore forward
Johan Nissen-Lie, who slotted his 10th goal of the season inside the near post.
Bellarmine didn't stop there. Less than two minutes later, senior midfielder
Collin Folds spotted a hard-charging
Rhys Davies with a give-and-go pass. The senior defender raced inside the box, split three surrounding defenders and ripped a sliding right-footer from the corner of the 6 into the net for the equalizer on his third goal of the season and second in the ASUN Championship.
North Florida finished with a 17-12 advantage in shots, including 6-4 on frame.
Davies, Nissen-Lie and redshirt senior midfielder
Jackson Marks were selected to the ASUN All-Tournament Team.
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