Coastal Carolina men’s soccer faces tall task in NCAA second-round matchup

The Coastal Carolina men’s soccer team has an 18-3 record, has been ranked as high as No. 9 in the national polls this year while leading the nation in scoring and has but one loss since the middle of September.

And for that, the Chanticleers get: a second-round NCAA tournament match at top-seeded North Carolina on Sunday.

The Chants received a tough draw in the 48-team bracket, advancing with a 4-3 win over Elon in the first round to face the vaunted Tar Heels as they look to keep this special season of theirs going.

“We’ve got nothing to lose, the pressure’s on them,” CCU coach Shaun Docking said. “If we win, they’re out of the NCAA tournament and they’re no longer the No. 1 team in the country. So I think for us, it’s going to be fun.”

That’s one way to look at it.

That victory over Elon on Thursday night was the program’s first NCAA tournament win since 2003, when they reached the third round of the bracket. That memorable run included a second-round win at North Carolina, but that’s nothing more than an interesting tidbit heading into this showdown.

These Tar Heels (17-2-2), who had a first-round bye, have won six straight matches while outscoring their opponents 16-2 over that stretch, and they have allowed only two opponents all season to score two goals in a game while posting nine shutouts.

North Carolina, which reached the NCAA semifinals last season, is also 10-0-2 at home at Fetzer Field this year. The team is led by junior forward Billy Schuler (14 goals and four assists), junior midfielder Enzo Martinez (eight goals and 10 assists) and senior Matt Hedges (the ACC defensive player of the year).

But Coastal, led by junior forward Ashton Bennett (the NCAA’s leading scorer with 22 goals), at least has some idea of what it’s up against. The teams met in an Aug. 19 preseason exhibition, which North Carolina won 2-0.

“We’ve got a lot of confidence going into the game,” Docking said. “I think we’re a good team. I think we deserve to be here, but you’re playing the No. 1 team in the country. We’re familiar with them, we played them in preseason and getting an opportunity to do that is a big thing for the program.”

So is making it to the second round of the tournament, though this isn’t where these Chants want this journey to end.

“We’re just going to go out to have a good time,” senior midfielder Cyprian Hedrick said. “We’re not worried about this, we’re not worried about that. It’s just a game. You know, anybody can beat anybody. People talk highly about them. We’ve played them – we know what they’re capable of doing, they obviously know what we’re capable of doing, so I fancy our chances against them.

“They’re just another team to us, so we’re going to go out there and give it our all and hopefully have a good result.”