FREDERICKSBURG, Va. -- In a matchup that felt like a microcosm of the season as a whole, the second-seeded Christopher Newport men's soccer team scored a thrilling equalizer in the final two minutes of regulation to force overtime in the Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference Championship, but the top-ranked University of Mary Washington Eagles escaped with a 3-2 win on Sunday afternoon. 

During the game, sophomore Drew McWhinney scored twice, including the game's opening goal and a dramatic game-tying goal with just 98 seconds remaining to force extra time against the conference rivals. The electrifying finish to the C2C Championship would then end in heartbreak for Captains fans as C2C Player of the Year Carter Berg connected on his second goal of the night just under three minutes into overtime to clinch the league title. 

With the setback, Christopher Newport dropped to 6-7-5 on the season while Mary Washington heads into the NCAA Tournament with a 17-1-2 overall record. 

The 2024 season featured a tremendous start by the Captains, climbing to No. 8 in the United Soccer Coaches Top 25 after an 5-0-3 start to the year. The year took a turn over the next eight, though, despite playing at a championship caliber for much of the season. Taking on the nation's most challenging schedule, Christopher Newport stumbled to a 5-6-5 mark headed into the C2C Tournament. Then, on Friday, the Captains showcased their impressive abilities on both ends of the field with a 2-1 win that catapulted the perennial conference power back into the C2C Championship Game. 

Like the season as a whole, the game took shape in a similar fashion. The Captains burst out of the gates, and took it to the Eagles on their home field. Twenty minutes into the game, Hayden Dewey made his first save and moments later, the Captains got their best chance of the early going by way of a Matt Liss shot. Mason Field played a touch pass to the right corner of the box and Liss unleashed a blazing shot just inches high of the upper ninety. 

With the momentum pointing toward CNU, it would be just over six minutes of game time later that CNU would cash in on the first goal of the match through their sophomore forward. The Captains reset through their goalkeeper for a full field run as Dewey sent a long ball up the center of the pitch. Trapping the ball was McWhinney and the brilliant first touch set he and Barry Jones loose down the middle to create with the defense tracking back on their heels. Jones, the team's leader in assists over the duration of his career, took one touch to his own right foot before sliding a perfectly executed pass through the hole created by two Mary Washington defenders. Racing by the first, McWhinney took his first touch hard and low into the left side of the goal under the sliding goalkeeper for the score. 

The excitement of the early lead would not hold, however, as Berg equalized for the home team less than a minute later. Nelsar Castillo slipped a pass through the CNU defense and Berg managed to work his way around Dewey before taking the shot on an open goal. Then, just seconds after the whistle started the second half, the Eagles took a 2-1 lead on a goal by Joel Albritton set up by Sammy Amorose. 

Playing from behind the rest of the way, the Captains continued to pressure the Mary Washington defense. Colin Skwirut played an exceptional game in the midfield, challenging 50-50 balls throughout the contest and playing through contact with multiple Mary Washington players. He ripped a shot high in the 75th minute that nearly tied the game and made a pivotal defensive stand late in the game that eliminated a potential 3 on 1 Eagles break. 

With time running short, the Captains got a free kick from just outside the Mary Washington box, but the ensuing shot from Yazan Yaghmmour sailed high. CNU then worked for a corner kick in the 87th minute that Jason LaViola placed perfectly, but the pass was picked out of the air by the Eagles keeper, Freddy Rogers. As the onslaught of CNU chances continued to mount, the electric finish would come in the final two minutes. 

Like the first goal of the match, it was McWhinney triggering the play himself after a pass from Manzi Siibo. McWhinney looked out to the right wing where Matt Liss was waiting. With one defender facing up, Liss turned inside and lifted a spectacular pass into the box with a left-footed lob; McWhinney was there, finishing his run by leaping in front of the keeper for a header into the back of the net for the equalizer. 

The goal was McWhinney's third of the tournament and sixth of the season as he helped CNU force overtime on the road. Unfortunately for CNU fans, though, Berg lifted his home team to the win just under three minutes into the extra period with his second goal of the match. On a corner kick, a header pass across the middle found Berg in the middle for a short range shot into the left. 

Earning All-Tournament honors for the Captains were McWhinney, Liss, and Mason Field, who closed out his career with 84 minutes of action in the midfield helping organize the Captains on both ends of the field. It was Field with a header to Siibo that started the game-tying run. 

The Captains have reached the C2C Championship game in four of the last five seasons and seven times since joining the conference in 2013.