BU continues postseason mastery of FNU, advances to CAC Final

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -- After 110 scoreless minutes, the second-seeded Bellevue University men's soccer team needed extra penalty kicks to advance past third-seeded Florida National University in the Continental Athletic Conference semifinals on Sunday afternoon at the Grizzly Soccer Complex.

The result avenges a 3-2 loss from back on Sept. 27, as Bellevue moves to 10-7-2 and returns to the CAC Championship Game for the eighth consecutive season. Florida National wraps up its 2025 campaign with an overall record of 11-3-3.

Bellevue has now faced FNU four times in the CAC Tournament, winning twice outright and advancing on penalties in the other two instances.

The Bruins will face No. 12-ranked Georgia Gwinnett College on Tuesday at 7 p.m., with the CAC Championship and automatic bid to the NAIA National Tournament on the line.

It will be the sixth meeting in the last eight seasons between BU and GGC in the Championship Game. Bellevue has won three of those previous five meetings.

Florida National started fast, controlling the tempo and frequently dispossessing the Bruins, preventing Bellevue from building anything out of the back or gaining traction going forward.

The first five shots of the game belonged to the Conquistadors, with Bellevue not registering a shot until the 35th minute, when Jona Fischer put a header on frame, but Vitor Caetano came up with a save on the looping attempt from eight yards out.

Though FNU controlled play in the early going, Bellevue came to life around the midway point of the half, taking more control and doing a better job at maintaining possession. The game was scoreless entering the intermission, and play was balanced out over the final 10-15 minutes of the half.

The Conquistadors outshot BU 6-1 over the first 45 minutes, putting four shots on goal to just the one for the Bruins and gaining a 3-2 edge in corners.

With the wind at their back in the second half, Bellevue wasted little time generating a dangerous chance as Adam Sherwood generated three shots in just over two minutes of game time, with two coming one goal.

Bellevue looked to have broken through in the 67th minute with Sherwood finding the back of the net on a second ball off a corner, but an offside call took the goal off the board.

In the 80th minute, FNU had the best chance of the game to date. Thomas Meredith unleashed a howler from distance that Kaden Simpson made a diving stop on before recovering and coming up and using his body at point-blank range to prevent David Luque from converting the rebound.

Okan Erkocu put an 86th-minute chance on target for BU, drilling a shot from distance, but Caetano came up with the stop for Florida National to give the Bruins a corner.

The game proceeded to overtime, where Buster Honeywood had a look to end the game less than 90 seconds into the extra period, but his free kick rang off the crossbar.

Neither team delivered a shot in the second overtime, and the game advanced to penalty kicks.
After tying at four penalties apiece, the game went into extras, where Jeremiah Hteh converted his try for the Bruins, and Simpson made the lone save of the shootout to send BU through to the final.

Bellevue outshot the Conquistadors 11-10 for the match, including putting the majority of the efforts at goal in the second half, outshooting FNU 10-4 in the second 45 minutes and two overtime periods.

Simpson finished with eight saves for the Bruins, just two off his season-high, while Caetano made four saves for Florida National. 

Penalty Shootout:

(BU) Okan Erkocu MADE, 1-0
(FNU) Filipe Ribeiro MADE, 1-1
(BU) Juan Lagares MADE, 2-1
(FNU) Juan Pugin MADE, 2-2
(BU) Stanley Richardson MADE, 3-2
(FNU) Fabio Zandona MADE, 3-3
(BU) Andres Valencia MISSED, 3-3 crossbar
(FNU) Diego Zogbi MISSED, 3-3 over
(BU) Buster Honeywood MADE, 4-3
(FNU) David Luque MADE, 4-4
(BU) Jeremiah Hteh MADE, 5-4
(FNU) Thiago Bayer MISSED, 5-4 save by Kaden Simpson