NASHVILLE — Winning the conference regular season title comes with perks. Not only does it come with a banner, the title also earns a team the right to host the first round of the Gulf South Conference Championship.
The Trevecca Nazarene University men's soccer squad faced a familiar foe in the opening round of the GSC championship, but in reverse. In 2025, the Mississippi Christian University Choctaws were the top-seed and hosted the eighth-seeded Trojans in Clinton, Mississippi. On Saturday, it was TNU who played the part of top-seed and hosts, and the Trojans (13-1-2) took advantage of the home field advantage in defeating the Choctaws (3-8-4), 3-1.
The Trojans were the first higher seed to survive a chaotic day in the Gulf South Conference Championship. The day began with sixth-seeded West Alabama outlasting the No. 3 seed Alabama-Huntsville 4-3, and No. 5 seed Lee University went on the road and defeated Montevallo 2-0.
THE SERIES
The teams had met four times prior to Saturday, with Mississippi Christian taking three wins before the Trojans picked up the 6-2 win last month. The Trojans have now won the last two meetings, and MCU leads the series 3-2.
THE MATCH
Trevecca applied pressure from the word 'go.'
Jack Franklin had a shot attempt for the Trojans just 16 seconds into the match, and before the match was four minutes old, they had a 5-0 edge in shots. The Trojans had 13 shots in the first half, with six of them being on frame, and Mississippi Christian had only one shot in the opening half. Despite all that pressure, though, the match remained scoreless at intermission.
In the 47th minute, the pressure paid off.
Zion Jones took a pass down to the end line on the left-hand side of the field, and he crossed a pass in to
Jack Franklin who ripped a shot home for his seventh career tally, and that gave the Trojans the 1-0 lead.
After an offside call negated a chance for MCU, the Trojans built a counter attack from the back. The ball again came up the left wing side before being sent back to the middle where it found the feet of
Chris Douglas. Douglas dribbled his way through three MCU defenders to get in behind the defense, and he slotted home a right-footed shot that hit just behind the right post and rolled into the net for his 17th goal of the season.
Mississippi Christian pulled one back less than a minute later when Karim Gegg cashed in a pass from Patrick Vukoje to get the Choctaws on the board, but the field did not flip, and the Trojans kept the pressure on.
In the 76th minute, Douglas struck again. The Trojans played the ball into the mixer, and
Ciaran Bellis touched the ball to Douglas who blasted a shot through traffic that trickled over the line and into the net to put the Trojans up 3-1. The Choctaws did not manage another shot after Douglas's goal, and Trevecca took the win to advance to the semifinals
GOALKEEPERS:
Trevecca -
Hunter Walker (W; 13-1-2) - 90 Minutes Played, 1 GA, 1 SV
MCU - Santiago Dominguez Ochoa (L; 3-5-1) - 90 Minutes Played, 3 GA, 8 SV
SCORING:
46:40 - TNU:
Jack Franklin (3,
Zion Jones)
56:59 - TNU:
Chris Douglas (17, Unassisted)
57:54 - MCU: Karim Gegg (7, Patrick Vukoje)
75:44 - TNU:
Chris Douglas (18,
Ciaran Bellis)
UP NEXT
Trevecca will get a chance to avenge their only loss so far in 2026 in the GSC Semifinal. The Trojans will take on the Lee University Flames (9-4-4) in the first of two semifinal matches to take place on Thursday, November 5 at the Loretta P. Spencer Sports Complex in Huntsville, Alabama. The match is slated to kick off at 3 p.m.
