DALLAS — Brandon Morales scored early in the second half to give the Charlotte 49ers their third conference title in program history with an improbable win on the road against SMU, one of the top men's soccer teams in the country.
Morales found the net in the 55th minute by virtue of a rebound ricocheted to him after a corner kick from Matthew Kirk was denied by the SMU goalkeeper. The goal put the 49ers up 2-1, a lead they kept for the rest of the game.
Charlotte scored their first goal in the 22nd minute with a goal from Ian Pilcher, who was the beneficiary of some lucky bounces following a free kick. The Mustangs evened things up just minutes later with a penalty kick.
The conference title win comes in Charlotte's first season as a member of the American Athletic Conference. The 49ers were seeded No. 2 in the AAC tournament after finishing the season with a 6-2 conference record, 12-3-1 overall. Charlotte knocked off Florida Atlantic in the semifinals before facing SMU, the No. 2 ranked team in all of NCAA Division I Men's Soccer competition.
To stack the odds even further against Charlotte, the final two rounds of the tournament were hosted by SMU in Dallas. The hostile environment did not phase the 49ers, though, who grabbed their first conference title in 10 years.
"I am really proud of these guys," Kevin Langan, head coach said. "Obviously, SMU, a great team, pushed back, but we played very well today."
Langan led the 49ers to their last conference title game in 2013 in his first year as coach when the program was a part of Conference-USA. Charlotte's first conference title came in 1983 when the 49ers beat Old Dominion after six overtimes to win the Sun Belt Conference crown.
It's the 4th consecutive year that SMU has come up short in the AAC tournament. Before this stretch, the Mustangs won the title from 2017 to 2019.
Charlotte will now be one of the 48 teams participating in the NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament. The bracket for the tournament will be announced on Monday at 1 p.m.