KANSAS CITY, Mo. - After falling behind late in the first half, the University of Charleston scored twice early in the second half to propel the Golden Eagles into the Division II national championship game for the second time in three seasons with a 2-1 victory over Rockhurst on Thursday at Swope Soccer Village.
Charleston (19-2-2) avenged last year's Final Four loss with Thursday's win and will look to capture its first national title against Wingate at 1 p.m. Saturday. The Bulldogs advanced to the championship game with a 2-0 victory against UC San Diego earlier in the day.
"We played really well. We broke them down with our forwards really well," Charleston coach Chris Grassie said. "We were down at halftime, but felt we were creating chances and we knew that if we continued that we'd be able to do this.
"It's a great feeling, great to see this group put together a good performance to get back to the final."
Felipe Antonio's header that found its way to the back of the net past Rockhurst goalkeeper Logan Feldmann came just six minutes after UC got its early equalizer from Will Roberts and provided the difference in the match.
That goal was set up by Jermaine Windster, who sent in a beautiful cross that found Antonio for his second assist of the game.
UC dominated possession and chances for much of the game, and ended up outshooting the Hawks 13-12. But Rockhurst (18-3-3) was able to strike first after neither team capitalized on their chances in the early going. Mitch Moncada scored in the 33rd minute to pull the Hawks ahead going into the locker room at the half.
But that lead didn't hold for long. Charleston seized the momentum back just four minutes into the second half when Roberts took a pass from Windster and scored to tie the game.
"We knew we just had to keep getting it out wide and letting our wingers work on them," Grassie said. "We got the ball to the guys who have been playing well and they took advantage of it."
After the Golden Eagles took the lead, Rockhurst tried to push numbers forward to add more pressure, looking for the late goal to bring the game back even. Yet the Hawks weren't able to find that, as the UC defense and goalkeeper Paulo Pita were able to come up big when called upon.
"Our defense was immense in the second half down the stretch," Grassie said. "They got a few counter-attack opportunities on us, but our guys did their job and got the stops when they needed to for us to hold on."
Pita made seven stops, including a big one in the final minutes, in the victory. Feldmann added six saves for Rockhurst.