Don't pack away the summer clothing yet. The Lancaster Bible College men's soccer team is headed to Florida.

The Chargers (15-6) defeated arch-rival Philadelphia Biblical University 1-0 on Friday afternoon to clinch a berth in the NCCAA National Championships to be held in Kissimmee, Florida.

The first 20 minutes saw both teams have scoring chances. The Crimson Eagles had multiple corners and hit the post, while the Chargers missed just wide on two early shots. After holding off sustained pressure by PBU, the Chargers worked the ball to the outside where Kyle Zook was streaking down the wing. His pass across found Lawrence Lartey who ripped the ball past Crimson Eagle goalkeeper Andy Ecker for his eighth goal of the season.

"It was a perfect ball from Zook," Lartey said of his goal in the 29th minute. "I was very thankful to just have to gather it and shoot it."

Lartey was a force to be reckoned with the whole game. His intensity energized the Chargers time-and-time again and he made it apparent he wasn't going to let the Chargers lose in the final for the third straight season.

"I play my best when I'm not thinking and just go out there and play," Lartey said. "It was a whole team effort today. The defense played great, especially Jake [Kreider] and Richie [Westerlund]."

Lartey said he was playing for his father who badly wanted to attend the game, but was unable to.

"I had his voice in my head the whole time," Lartey said. "I was playing for him and God."

The shut down defense by freshmen Richard Westerlund and Keith Keltner kept the Crimson Eagles (7-11-2) off balance, especially their big guns Jeremy Dunham and Phil Haas. Haas was kept off the scoresheet for the first time in two years against the Chargers.

"Richard and Keith did an unbelievable job today on Dunham and Haas," Charger Head Coach Josh Beers said. "We told the defense we were going to match them man-for-man and they embraced it."

Westerlund said it was exactly what he wanted.

"After watching them beat us on Homecoming at home, I texted Coach Beers and told him I wanted a chance to shut them down," Westerlund said. "Today I capitalized on my chance and the defense played great."

The backstopper of the defense, goalkeeper Jake Kreider, said that LBC was disappointed with their performance last season in the final when they lost 3-2 to PBU.

"We came in with a different mindset today and it paid off," Kreider said. "I wasn't going to let one by me and the defense is coming together at the right time. It's an amazing feeling to win."

Charger midfielder Zak Kraehmer agreed with Kreider that LBC is peaking at the right time.

"We had a job to do today and we did it," Kraehmer said. "It almost seemed like fate that we were going to win today. We beat them last year in the regular season and then they beat us in the final, and this season they beat us in the regular season and now we beat them in the final."

Kraehmer said it didn't hit the Chargers that they had won and were headed to Florida until the two teams were praying after the game.

"Clay [Roberts] was praying after the match and said good luck to us in Florida and I sort of peeked up and saw everyone else do it as well, it just sort of hit us all at the same time that we had actually won," Kraehmer said.

Beers said the hard work the team put in during the off-season came to fruition on Friday.

"You think about the workouts we put in and the fact we knew we could win down here," Beers said. "We focused on that and we knew our time was now."

Having won their first region title, Lartey doesn't see any reason they can't keep winning in the National Tournament.

"We want to be good representatives of the East Region," Lartey said. "Our goal is to go down there and play our best."

Notes:
-The NCCAA National Championships will be held from November 13-16. The NCCAA will release the Division II bracket in the coming days.

-Kreider has recorded four straight shutouts.

-Dating back to 2002, PBU has defeated LBC 12 out of the last 14 games. Both losses came at home.

-Lartey now has 31 points on the season.