Penalty kicks. For those who’ve been following Charlotte Men’s Soccer the last few seasons, those two words would be enough to make you cringe, and possibly dry heave. It started with Charlotte facing Rhode Island on their field in the 2009 Atlantic 10 Tournament. The Niners lost in PK’s 4-3 after a 1-1 draw, hurting their seeding in the NCAA tournament. Then in the first round of that NCAA Tournament game it was UNC Wilmington who broke the hearts of Niner Nation with penalty kicks, followed by a few Seahawk faithful rushing OUR field to pour salt on the wound. Last year presented a cold, rainy evening with  the men’s basketball team having already fallen to Gardner-Webb. Xavier lasted all of OT without allowing a goal. Inevitably a terrible day had a terrible ending, with Xavier winning in PK’s and ending Charlotte’s season.

The Connecticut Huskies had faced similar misery, being sent to the lockers the for the final time in each of the last two seasons at the hand of penalty kicks. When the clock hit zero at the end of the second overtime today, either Charlotte’s or UConn’s luck was about to change for the better, and today it was Charlotte’s. When Charles Rodriguez’s kick found the nets, the ticket was stamped to the Charlotte 49ers’ first College Cup since their trip in 1996.

It was a great match between two very good teams that remained scoreless for over 80 minutes of play. In the 82nd minute,  Tony Cascio, an All-American, broke free and scored the for the Huskies. Fortuitously, it only took three minutes for Charlotte to answer when Giuseppe Gentile, the A10 Rookie of the Year, scored off of a Tyler Gibson header following a foul kick from Aaron Weldon.

“I did it for my boys, I didn’t do it for me, I didn’t do it for anybody, I just did it for the team.” said the freshman, Gentile after the game, adding, “I’m just the lucky one to close it off and put it back in the net.” When asked his thoughts on making it to the College Cup, he answered simply: “Dream come true.”

The score remained the same through two overtime periods, both of which saw Charlotte dominate possession. When it was time for penalty kicks the 49ers stepped up, finishing two of their first three, while UConn missed their first two shots. Charles Rodriquez stepped up and sealed the win on the fifth attempt, sending UConn to the offseason.

UConn Head Coach Ray Reid didn’t give the Niners much credit, saying, “We had the game won, it’s unconscionable that we’re home, up a goal with eight minutes to go, and we blow it,” also adding, “Honestly, in a game like this, our top players have got to play better.”

Charlotte Head Coach had this to add, “Typical playoff game very tight. We played good soccer at times but it was tough to get behind UConn. I thought that we passed the ball better than Connecticut. We were just finding it tough to get clear cut scoring chances. It was a back and forth game. When they scored in a game with few chances it was tough to ask of our players. Time and again this year this group has the belief and they got ability, fitness and desire to come back. We kept pushing. Tyler Gibson knots the ball across the goal. Giuseppe Gentile buries another one off a great pass from Gibson and Aaron Weldon.”

When it came to seeing the season on the line in penalty kicks, Coach Gunn added, “Over the past couple of years, we did not advance on after going to a penalty shootout and it has been a thorn in our side. We have been practicing shootouts since last year. We showed great composure and converted the penalty kicks to put us into the College Cup.”

The Charlotte 49ers will face the #2 seeded Creighton Blue Jays on Friday at 6PM in Hoover, Alabama, the game will be on ESPNU/ESPN3. #13 seeded UCLA will play #1 seeded North Carolina-Chapel Hill following the 49ers-Blue Jays game. As the only unseeded team, and the only team that had to win four games to get to Hoover, Charlotte is the Cinderella story going into the weekend. But the last four games have shown the Niner Nation, and the entire nation that the Charlotte 49ers can play with, and beat, the best of them.

Fathom this Niner Nation, we have a team that is two simple wins away from a National Championship. You don’t need green tinted glasses to see how spectacular and awesome that is.