MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (November 16, 2022) - AutoNation Field is set to host the NAIA Men's Soccer First and Second Round Miami Gardens Bracket for the second consecutive season. The First Round of games will be played on Thursday, November 17 with the Second Round to determine who will head to the final site in Decatur, Alabama.

Miami Gardens Bracket Schedule
Thursday, November 17 - #1 St. Thomas vs. #4 Embry-Riddle; 12:00 p.m. ET
Thursday, November 17 - #2 Life vs. #3 Florida National; 2:30 p.m. ET
Friday, November 18 - First Round Winners

Live Video - All games will be streamed on The Sun Digital Network ($7 PPV, $12 Tournament Pass)
Live Stats - Can be found here for all games.
Tickets - $8 per adult 13 and over, $5 per student with valid ID. Can be purchased online at stubobcats.com/tickets NO CASH ACCEPTED
Tournament Page

Participants

St. Thomas (Fla.) (9-1-5, 5-0-2 SUN) is set to be the no. 1 seed and will play host in Miami Gardens. The Bobcats finished the season 9-1-5 with their only loss coming in the Sun Conference Tournament Championship game against no. 9 Keiser. The Bobcats went through their second straight season without dropping a game in regular season and conference play. Franco Acerbi is one of the best defenders in NAIA posting 11 shutouts for third best in the country and a top-10 save percentage at .840. Guido Cacciabue is the leading point getter with 20 on the season, eight goals scored and four assists. Fernando Arzeno falls right behind with eight goals himself and three assists for 19 points. Juan Manuel Collazo is the glue to it all the captain steer the ship through the center back position and his been one of the biggest reasons for the 11 shutouts that the Bobcats have. This is the fourth straight year the Bobcats play in the national tournament. 

Life (Ga.) (14-2-1, 5-2-1 SSAC) will be the no.2 seed and enters the national tournament on a six game winning streak, picking up their two big upsets in the Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament taking down no. 1 Dalton State in the semifinals 2-1, and the taking down no. 4 Mobile, 3-1 in the championship game. As the tournament champions, Life received the automatic bid from the SSAC. The Running Eagles finished 14th in the final NAIA Coaches' Poll prior to their playoff run. Bart Kooistra is the key to the offense leading the team in goals (nine) and assists (seven) for a total of 25 points. Danny DeLorijn is one of the main reasons for the playoff run scoring three goals in three games, one of which was a game winner against Dalton State. Luka Zakarija is the senior goalkeeper for Life logging 1500-plus minutes in the net this season. Zakarija has three shutouts, a .710 save percentage, and a 1.07 goals against average. 

Florida National (10-2-3) comes in to the Miami Gardens Bracket as no. 3 seed and worked their way into the tournament on an automatic qualifier as the Continental Athletic Conference tournament runner-up. The Conquistadors do not travel from far as their campus is just 15 minutes from Miami Gardens. The Conquistadors spread their scoring as 17 different players have recorded a goal this season. Marcos Bakale leads the way with four goals and four assists. Victor Ruiz has spent the most time in the net and has a .722 save percentage and allows just under one goal per game (0.97). Between both goalkeepers, the Conquistadors have tallied eight shutouts, two against host, St. Thomas. Both had Ruiz in the net. Florida National started the season with seven straight wins and in the rankings before taking a tough loss to Southeastern. FNU fell to Bellevue in the CAC title game.

Embry-Riddle (Ariz.) (16-3-1) wraps up the participants as the no. 4 seed in the bracket. The Eagles are the California Pacific Conference Regular Season and Tournament Champions and are back in the tournament for the first time since 2019. The Eagles collected three major awards in the Cal Pac with Lucas Garcia crowned as the Cal Pac Offensive Player of the Year, head coach Dan Balaguero was awarded the Coach of the Year and Alex Frances as the Newcomer of the Year. Frances is no.5 in the NAIA in goals scored with 22, 16 of which came in conference play, he is sixth in points with 48. Garcia has 11 goals on the season with 10 assists for 32 points. Elias Ammon is the goalkeeper for the Eagles with seven shutouts, a 0.87 goals allowed average, and .803 save percentage. Ammon was in the net for 12 of the team's 16 wins.