FREDERICKSBURG, Va. -- For the third time this season, the Christopher Newport and Mary Washington men's soccer teams played to a 2-1 final score. In the rubber match, it was the Captains who celebrated the win and with it, the Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Championship. Capturing the team's first conference title since 2016, CNU men's soccer is headed back to the NCAA Tournament for the 12th time in program history. 

The teams exchanged early goals in the first half and the rest of the match was played even until the go-ahead goal from sophomore defender Jonathon Leiding in the 76th minute. The second goal of the tournament for Leiding proved to be the gamewinner as the CNU defense locked down the final 15 minutes and celebrated the win. 

With the victory, Christopher Newport improved to 10-4-2 overall and will now await the decision of the NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championship Committee for their first round opponent and location. A selection show will be released on NCAA.com at 1:30 pm on Monday, November 8 with the full bracket. 

Mary Washington took an early 1-0 lead on their home field when Josh Kirkland scored just 5:34 into the match. The Captains would not let the lead hold very long, though, as they cashed in on the game-tying goal less than a minute and a half later. 

CNU worked for a corner kick in the eighth minute and senior Cory Hogge stepped in to take it. Making just his second career start, rookie defender Ryan Kiely was in the right place for the corner when the ball found his head on the back post to even the match. Kiely stepped in admirably for senior team captain Daniel Hulett who did not play after a gutsy 97-minute effort against UC Santa Cruz in the semifinals. 

With the game knotted at one goal apiece, both teams leaned on strong defensive play allowing only ten combined shots on-goal in the contest. Sophomore goalkeeper Gabe Barros made four saves for the Captains and Ken Kurtz made three stops for Mary Washington. The strong back line of Davis Pillow, Jacob Dudley, Jonathon Leiding and Ryan Kiely all played full time and held the talented Mary Washington attack to just one goal. 

As the tension grew late in the match, the Captains were the ones who took the lead in the 76th minute and applied more pressure on the home team. Leiding looked to serve a ball into the box from just inside midfield and saw the ball bounce in the box and skip off the turf into the back corner of the goal. The fortuitous bounce was all the Captains needed to seal their first conference championship since 2016. 

For his efforts in the two postseason games, Leiding was named the C2C Tournament MVP. He was joined on the All-Tournament team by Davis Pillow, Gabe Barros, and Will Collins. 

The Captains are now 1-0-1 in conference championship games under head coach Justin Chezem and will make their second NCAA Tournament appearance in his two official seasons at the helm. It is also the tenth overall showing in the last 15 seasons, all of which Chezem has been a part.