BROWNS SUMMIT, NC – Senior forward
Lucas Vila scored the game-winning goal in the 51st minute as #5 seed Francis Marion University captured a 1-0 win over second-seeded Lees-McRae College on Sunday afternoon (Nov. 8) in the championship match of the 2026 Conference Carolinas Men's Soccer Tournament.
The Patriots improve to 16-4-2 and will return to the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in program history after securing the Conference Carolinas automatic bid. FMU claims its second Conference Carolinas Tournament Championship in the last three years.
Vila was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament, and joining him on the All-Tournament Team were graduate student goalkeeper
Vicent Sanchis, graduate student defender
Tim Wilkening, graduate student midfielder
Filippo Noseda, and senior midfielder
Santiago Sanchez.
Francis Marion will await the announcement of the tournament field with the NCAA Selection Show set for Monday, November 9 at 6:30 p.m., streaming on NCAA.com.
Lees-McRae (15-2-3) suffers just its second loss of the season. The Bobcats were fourth in the Southeast Region NPI Rankings before today's contest and will look to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
In the opening 10 minutes of the first half, Vila tallied a pair of shots, which both missed the mark, while Sanchis secured a comfortable save in the sixth minute.
The Patriots controlled a majority of the possession in the first half, with senior forward
Volkan Celikkol arguably having the best look in the initial 45 minutes with a header that sealed over the crossbar off a free kick at the 13:56 mark.
Despite the pressure from the Patriots, Lees-McRae countered by keeping the ball in its attacking half for the final 10 minutes but only managed one shot.
At halftime, Francis Marion held an 8-4 lead in total shots while both sides registered two corner kicks.
The Patriots struck quickly in the second half as a long pass from midfield by senior defender
Esteban Quintero found the charging Vila. He gathered the ball and delivered a right-foot shot that rolled in the bottom left corner, his team-leading ninth goal of the year, 1-0.
At the 63:07 mark, the Bobcats were forced to 10 men as 2026 Conference Carolinas Offensive Player of the Year Conor O'Gorman was shown a straight red card.
The Patriots would continue to control the pace of the match in the final 27 minutes, surrendering only one shot on goal. In the closing moments, Lees-McRae nearly tied the match as a shot by Cristiano Leite hit the crossbar in the 88th minute, but the Patriots cleared it to capture the 1-0 shutout win.
Sanchis totaled two saves on eight shots faced to earn his 10th clean sheet of the season.
The Patriots finished the contest with a 16-8 lead in total shots and a 5-3 edge in corner kicks.
