Road to College Cup Begins Thursday for @OspreyMSOC

2015 Men's Soccer Bracket | PDF
CONWAY, S.C. – Appearing in its first ever NCAA Tournament, the North Florida men's soccer team (10-6-1) will be pitted against No. 20 Coastal Carolina (12-2-4) in the first round on Thursday night. The winner will move on to play North Carolina on Sunday in Chapel Hill.

Gameday Need to Know
Date	Thursday, Nov. 19
Time	6:00 p.m.
Opponent	Coastal Carolina \| Schedule \| Stats
Live Stats	CCU Live Stats
Live Video	Big South Network
Twitter	@OspreyMSOC (In-game Updates)
Game Notes	North Florida \| Coastal Carolina

Season of Firsts: The North Florida men's soccer team is playing in their first ever NCAA Tournament after winning the program's first ever Atlantic Sun Conference Championship. The Ospreys dominated all facets of the A-Sun Title game, defeating USC Upstate 7-0 at home last Saturday. North Florida defeated the same Spartans in the regular season finale, 2-0 to clinch a share of the its first ever regular season title.

Program Turnaround: Atlantic Sun co-Coach of the Year, Derek Marinatos and his staff have completely overhauled a North Florida men's soccer program from where it stood five seasons ago. Marinatos took over a team that had won seven games in two seasons prior to his arrival and went 1-15 (0-8 A-Sun) in 2011, his first season on the job. Since then he has led the Ospreys to three-consecutive A-Sun Title games including a one-goal loss to FGCU last season. North Florida is 26-20-5 under Marinatos since the 2013 season.

Most Wins: In addition to the league title, on Saturday the Ospreys established a new D-1 era (2005-present) high with 10 wins this season. It marks the first time since 2000 that North Florida has won 10+ games in a season. The Ospreys won 11 games in back-to-back years in 1999 and 2000.

Re-Writing Record Books: Single game records were falling left and right on Saturday night. Here is the short list:
Team - Most goals in a game (D-1 Era) – 7
Team - Most goals in a game (All-Time) – 7 (Tied)
Team – Most Assists in a game (All-Time) – 9
Team – Most Points in a game – 23
Helge Pietschmann – Most Points in a game (All-Time) – 7 (Tied)
Helge Pietschmann – Most Goals in a game (All-Time) – 7 (Tied)
Helge Pietschmann – Most Goals in A-Sun Title Game – 3
Alex Morrell – Most Assists in a game (D-1 Era) – 3

Ranked Opponents: North Florida is no stranger to ranked foes this season. No. 20 Coastal Carolina is the sixth team the Ospreys have played that have appeared this year in the NSCAA Top 25 (Elon, North Carolina, FGCU, UNC Wilmington, USF).

National Recognition: Senior Helge Pietschmann was listed on the College Soccer News Team of the Week after his historic performance on Saturday night. He scored all three of his goals in a six-minute span to completely change the direction of the game. He is a two-time A-Sun All-Conference selection and since transferring to UNF prior to last season he has netted 14 goals, the second most career goals by any Osprey in the D-1 era.

All-Time Series: The Ospreys and Chanticleers have played twice with the last meeting occurring at Hodges Stadium in 2008, a 3-0 North Florida win. Coastal Carolina won the only other meeting, a 4-1 decision in Conway, S.C. in 2007.

About the Coastal Carolina: The Chanticleers are no stranger to the NCAA Tournament and will make their 13^th appearance and 11^th under Head Coach Shaun Docking. In the last four seasons they have one at least one game in the big dance and have won all five matches at CCU Soccer Stadium. After getting upset in the first round of the Big South Tournament, the Chanticleers earned one of the 24 at large bids thanks to an impressive regular season body of work. This year's team features one of the best defenses in the entire country with a goals against average of 0.63, seventh best in the NCAA.

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Players Mentioned

Alex Morrell

Helge Pietschmann

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