NATIONAL CHAMPIONS

By Joe Pickens, Times-Union Sports Correspondent

Dayton, Tenn. - Lakeland Christian Academy's boys soccer team won the Division I National Association of Christian Athletes (NACA) national soccer championship Friday afternoon in Dayton, Tennessee by beating Beaver County Christian School, Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania 2-1 in the finals.

LCA senior forward Brian Walker scored both goals for the Cougars. In the 12th minute, Aaron Wilcoxson slotted a ball past the Eagle defenders to Walker. Walker collected the ball at the edge of the penalty box and netted a goal under the outstretched arms of the onrushing Beaver County goalkeeper.

In the 74th minute Lakeland's freshman midfielder Chris Bammerlin carried the ball through heavy traffic down the left side of the field and crossed it in front of the goal to a waiting Walker, who chipped it in from ten yards out to extend the LCA lead to 2-0.

Beaver County came right back and narrowed the gap to 2-1 one minute later when all-tournament forward H.P. McCraken scored on a direct kick from 20 yards out. Lakeland's defense tightened the rest of the way and held their opponents scoreless as the Cougars won their first national soccer championship in the school's 27-year history.

LCA dominated Beaver County by outshooting them 18 to 5. The Cougars' Dan Clemens, who was named the tournament's most outstanding goalkeeper, had four saves on the day.

Lakeland ended its regular season with a disappointing 4-11-1 record, but began to come together in the postseason. The Cougars won the Indiana Association of Christian Schools International (ASCI) postseason tournament three weeks ago by beating Covenant Christian of Crown Point. The win qualified the Cougars for the national tournament in Tennessee.

Once the Cougars arrived in Tennessee, the momentum continued to build. LCA beat teams from Missouri and Florida by identical scores of 2-0 on Wednesday. They lost to Beaver County 2-1 Thursday, but made it to the championship game and a rematch with the Eagles by edging heavily favored Grace Christian School of North Carolina in sudden death in the semifinals. In that game, after the teams fought to a 0-0 tie in regulation, LCA outscored their opponents 4-3 in the second overtime period to come away with the electrifying victory.

"The strength of our schedule during the regular season finally paid off," said LCA coach Tim Yocum. "We played four public school teams that advanced far into the postseason tournament, including three teams in the Top 20. When you're used to playing against some of the best the state of Indiana has to offer, and if you keep your kids together, you can't help but come out of it as a better team."

Still, Yocum was not sure what he was going to face when he and his team arrived in Tennessee.

"We had no idea what the level of competition was going to be here," he said. "We knew they were the best of the best from their states, but we didn't really know how we were going to stack up."

The Cougar coach said his team couldn't have peaked at a better time.

"The kids just refused to lose," said Yocum. "I couldn't have asked for a better group of kids, kids who never lost sight of their goal and worked hard to come away with something that I'm sure they'll never forget."

Charles Lee, LCA's sophomore center midfielder, was named Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. Aaron Wilcoxson, Dan Blocher, Will Harman, Alex Lewis and Dan Clemens were also named to the team from the newly-crowned national champions.