CHARLESTON, SC - The UNC Greensboro Spartans came into the 2005 Southern Conference Men’s Soccer Championship with a chip on their shoulder.
The chip came to the forefront when the nationally-ranked Spartans had seen their conference regular-season outright title hopes smashed via a loss to proximity rival Elon in the final game of the regular season.
The loss left the Spartans in a tie with the Davidson Wildcats for the league championship, with both teams finishing the season with 15 points matriculated in conference play.
The tie at the end of the regular season came to fruition since the Spartans and the Wildcats in the annals of history never took the pitch against each other in the regular season since their game was ruled a no contest due to torrential rains caused by Hurricane Rita when the two teams met on Oct. 7 in Greensboro.
The game was stopped early, leaving the two teams without a contest against one another.
The Wildcats also garnered the No. 1 seed in the SoCon tournament as a direct result of the conference’s coin flip between the two institutions to decipher who would be the league’s top-seeded team in the 2005 Tournament.
The coin flip left the two rivals on different sides of the bracket, setting up seemingly a showdown in the championship match.
Since the top four seeds in men’s soccer played their first round game on their home field, the Spartans made sure in their first round match-up with Georgia Southern at UNCG Soccer Stadium that they would have the opportunity to take home their second SoCon men’s soccer title at Blackbaud Stadium.
The Spartans downed the Eagles 6-0, making a statement to the rest of the league that if they wanted to defeat the Spartans in this year’s SoCon championship a great deal was going to have to happen to take down the national powerhouse.
From an outsider’s point-of-view when the Spartans arrived at Blackbaud on Friday, Nov. 11, UNC Greensboro had that business-like look.
After seeing top-seeded Davidson advance to the championship game in their 2-1 semifinal win over fourth-seeded Furman, the Spartans used that workmanlike attitude to avenge their loss to the Phoenix from a little over a week before to set up the match that they had desired against Davidson in the final.
In the battle of the North Carolina institutions on Sunday, Nov. 13, the Spartans got off the snide first, picking up a 1-0 advantage in the 14th-minute when freshman Henning Jonason headed in a D.J. McCurry free-kick.
The Wildcats did not let the early goal let down their spirits, picking up an equalizer in the 16th-minute when Matt Allen continued his tremendous play of late, tallying his third goal of the SoCon Tournament and his fifth goal in the Wildcats' last five games, and even more importantly tying the game at 1-1.
Jonason, just a freshman remember, continued to put every SoCon program on notice on what to prepare for in the coming years again in the latter minutes of the first half when he volleyed in a shot past Davidson goalkeeper Ben Ashton to put the Spartans ahead for good at 2-1.
Jonason’s exploits earned him tournament most outstanding player honors.
The win catapulted UNC Greensboro to the NCAA Tournament, as the Spartans picked up the league’s automatic bid with their 2-1 win over the Wildcats.
If UNC Greensboro has its way then the rest of the NCAA, particularly the James Madison and Virginia Tech squads, will soon take notice, as that chip might not leave