The John Brown University Golden Eagles will go into the annual Quality Inn Fall Classic this weekend with three wins under their belt. At the Fall Classic, JBU will be facing Northwestern College (Iowa) and Union University (Tenn.).
Northwestern, a team in the Great Plains Athletic Conference did not have any seniors on the team last year. Then junior Mario Garcia led the team in goals with 19 and former freshman Gabriel Goncalvez followed with 11.
Union beat Ouachita Baptist 2-0 in their opener and played Lincoln Memorial to a scoreless draw after two overtimes. The Union Bulldogs are making the transition into the NCAA Division II and Gulf South Conference this year after they finished 5th in the TranSouth Conference last season. The team lost its starting goalie, but teammates still look to senior Guilherme Reis, who was last year’s leading scorer with a total of 9 goals.
As for the JBU Eagles, they are currently 3-0. Captain Luke Theimer, a junior, is the top scorer with three goals this season. Sophomores Martin Gonzalez and Ryan Duncan have two goals each.
John Miglarese sees the team conforming more to the coaching staff’s vision for the program.
“The team is starting to play and act more like we’ve envisioned as a coaching staff. We want to be fun to watch, we want to be competitive, we want to have great team culture, and we want people to be excited about us on campus because of how we play and who we are.”
The tournament will be held at Alumni Field, where the Eagles will take on the Northwestern Red Raiders Friday at 4 p.m. The Eagles will then play the Union Bulldogs the following day at the same time.