Two all-time seasons of McGinlay Field soccer ended on Nov. 3, the final whistle symbolizing the end of Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) soccer at Trinity University.
With the conference tournaments just around the corner, the players’ and coaches’ minds will already be focused on trophy dreams, leaving historic moments and achievements from the regular season forgotten in the past. As the men’s team capped off an undefeated season and the women’s team clinched the SCAC No. 1 seed, the history of Trinity soccer in this conference continued to echo.
It was a sentimental weekend for everyone involved. Friday was senior night for both squads as 15 players between the men’s and women’s squads celebrated what may be their last two games on McGinlay Field. Men’s soccer coach Paul McGinlay had a particularly notable weekend. He has been the coach of the Tigers since 1991 and has never coached a Trinity team that wasn’t a part of the SCAC.
“1991 seems like a few days ago,” McGinlay said. “We played a lot of SCAC games and, thankfully, had a lot of success.”
In his last ever SCAC regular season game, McGinlay became the stand-alone sixth- winningest soccer coach in NCAA Division III history. With 34 years of Trinity soccer and a lot of wins under his belt, it’d be easy to get used to winning. McGinlay, however, still has a special appreciation for this group of guys.
“Labor Day weekend, we started off with no wins, two ties wondering who was going to do our defending, who was going to score,” McGinlay said. “At the end of the season, there’s one team in the country that is top 10 for both attack and defense, Trinity. It’s a remarkable achievement for a great group of kids.”
Besides being top 10 in both attack and defense, Trinity men’s soccer ended the season undefeated, with three ties being the only potential blemishes on the season. The Tigers end the year as SCAC co-regular-season champions. With wins against the University of the Ozarks and Centenary College by a combined 11 goals to none, the Tigers wrapped up the number two seed in the Nov. 8 SCAC tournament at Sabercat Stadium.
With that said, at least in terms of seeding, Trinity women’s soccer has one-upped the men. As lone SCAC regular-season champions, the Tigers clinched the number one seed in the SCAC tournament on Nov. 1. Malea Cesar, sophomore midfielder and international goal-scorer for the Philippines, has been a huge part of Trinity’s 10-0 undefeated SCAC season.
“I’ve only been here for two years in this conference,” Cesar said, “but I think it says a lot that we were able to finish out this team’s legacy. So many people came before us and just dominated here. To be able to continue that on for them, I think that’s pretty cool.”
Cesar and her Trinity teammates finished out that SCAC legacy in style, only allowing one goal in SCAC games and winning seven out of their 10 wins by two goals or more. Their only loss all season came on the road in Virginia against the fifth-ranked Christopher Newport University. The Tigers ended their SCAC history with two wins against the University of the Ozarks and Centenary College by five and four respectively.
The Tigers were especially impressive on defense this season where they did not allow a single goal at home all season. Tigers’ women’s head coach Dylan Harrison attributed these defensive numbers to the mentality of his entire team, not just the starting defensive unit.
“We take pride in our defensive effort. Fifteen shutouts, only giving up goals in two games throughout the whole year. The number of people that were involved in it was sheer team effort,” Harrison said.
Those bigger things ahead are coming, and coming quickly. The men’s and teams will play Southwestern University in the SCAC tournament semifinal on Nov. 8. The women will kick off at noon while the men will play under the lights at 8 p.m. The championship games will be on Nov. 9 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. respectively. The following week the NCAA playoffs will start, which, without any surprises in the SCAC, should feature both teams and potentially some home playoff games.
