2024 William Penn Men’s Soccer: A Season Recap

Oskaloosa--The Statesmen men's soccer team experienced a campaign unlike any in its history in 2024.

Anyone around NAIA men's soccer over the last half decade can attest that the 2024 William Penn campaign was no fluke.  Coming off five consecutive NAIA National Championship appearances, including a Round of 16 finish in 2023, Head Coach Simon Brown and his staff made sure this fall was a breakout year.

A plethora of new blood entered the program, but many of those faces brought with them invaluable collegiate experience.  The new group immediately meshed well with the returning talent, led by 2023 NAIA Third-Team All-Americans Sean Bohan (Sr., Dublin, Ireland, Business Management) and Edan Sears (Sr., Telford, England, Sports Management).

Entering the fall at #16 in the country, the navy and gold would not be sneaking up on anyone this year.  Still, they came out of the gate in a blaze with the best start in program history.  Winners of their first four matchups by a combined 16-3 margin, the Statesmen likely would have been 5-0 had it not been for a short turnaround against perennial power Friends (the road contest ended in a 2-2 tie).

Included in the 4-0 start was one of the program's best victories ever as William Penn knocked off then-#2 Oklahoma Wesleyan 3-1 in the Sooner State.  The win propelled WPU to its highest ranking ever at #8 in mid-September.

The Statesmen were only getting started, taking down their next seven opponents with an overall scoring tally of 23-3.  The stretch was featured by four shutouts, including three in a row from September 5-14.

William Penn then faced off against league leader Missouri Valley in early October.  Unfortunately, WPU was saddled with its first loss of 2024.  It marked the start of the first of two rougher patches for the squad, ones that would eventually galvanize the crew for the stretch run.  The Statesmen would go on to win their next bout (2-1 over Graceland), but then fell to Park on October 12, the team's final defeat until the final game of the NAIA campaign on December 9.

Back-to-back victories righted the ship, but Wiliam Penn, which had nothing to gain in its regular season finale, slightly backed into the postseason with a draw.

As the #2 seed in the Heart of America Athletic Conference Championship, the navy and gold had a large target on their backs and Mount Mercy gave the hosts everything they had.  Fortunately, WPU had enough in the tank as Hugo Cornish (So., Sydney, Australia, Business Management), Connor O'Reilly (Sr., Letterkenny, Ireland, General Accounting), and Albert Feixas (Fr., Santa Coloma de Farners, Spain, Exercise Science) all connected on kicks in the shootout to lift their team to the league semifinals.  Bohan was the star, saving two Mustang attempts.

A slow start could not hold down the Statesmen in the semifinals as they secured a rematch with Missouri Valley by dropping third-seeded Clarke 3-0.  The scoring came in a flurry as the goals came in a span of just over seven minutes.

The Heart Championship Final was a pressure cooker with the winner not only claiming the Heart banner, but likely also obtaining a top seed for nationals.  In a steady rain, the game's lone goal came early as Miguel Menendez (So., Oviedo, Spain, Wellness and Recreation) stole a pass in MVC's defensive end and pushed it to Feixas who gave it off to Cornish for the finish in the third minute of action.  Bohan, as he did all year en route to tying the school record for shutouts with nine, kept the Vikings off the scoreboard with six saves.

Nationals turned out to be a run of familiar foes as all five of WPU's opponents were programs it had faced at some point since 2022.  WPU owned a combined 2-3 against those foes with two of those setbacks serving as season-ending losses for the Statesmen.  Revenge was on the menu for the navy and gold.

Hosting the NAIA Opening Round for the second year in a row, #3 overall seed William Penn first had to wait out the decision between Governors State and Missouri Baptist in the First Round.  GSU would eventually triumph 3-1 and then give Statesmen fans a cardiac event in the Second Round.

Pretty would not be the word to describe the victory, but 'Win And Advance' is the name of the game in the postseason as WPU held off Governors State 1-0 courtesy of a penalty kick score by Leighton Jameson (Jr., Lisburn, Northern Ireland, Psychology).  Bohan stopped four Jaguar attempts.

Moving onto the Final Site for the second year in a row, the Statesmen met up with Bethel (Ind.) in the Round of 16, a rematch of William Penn's 3-1 First Round loss to the Pilots from 2022.  This time around, WPU would come out on top of a 3-1 decision with the help of two goals by Moses Magens (Grad., Elmshorn, Germany, Master's of Sport Management).  The graduate student, who had not scored since the 2024 opener, stepped up in the most important match of the campaign.

The victory marked the furthest William Penn had ever reached at the national championship.  WPU had more to do, however.

Timothy King (Jr., London, England, Biology) joined Magens as he continued the trend of surprise heroes, scoring on an incredible crossing shot to lift his crew past Mobile 1-0 in the quarterfinals.  The goal by the senior was his lone one of the year.  King was limited to 10 games due to injury.  Bohan and the defense again squelched every Ram threat as the Statesmen pushed into the semifinal round against William Carey.

Two days after WPU took care of Mobile in a southern states trip in 2023, the Crusaders dealt the Statesmen one of their worst defeats in recent history.  The navy and gold exacted their retribution in The Jayhawk State with arguably the most exciting contest of the tournament, dropping William Penn 4-3 in overtime.

In a physical battle that featured nine yellow cards, the two Williams went back and forth for three ties and three lead changes.  Penn punched it ticket to the NAIA National Championship game by beating Carey as Menendez and Cornish, WPU's top two offensive stars throughout the fall, linked up for the game-winning goal just 2:20 into the first extra period.

William Penn and Dalton State, #3 and #1 in the country entering nationals, seemed destined to face off after the Roadrunners cut the 2023 Statesmen season short with a 1-0 win in the Round of 16.

The defenses were on full display all afternoon with 18 shots being taken (10-8 in favor of WPU), but only two of those tries coming on target (both for WPU).  Unfortunately, neither navy and gold attempt got past the DSU goalkeeper and after 110 minutes, the national title was decided in the most gut-wrenching and hand-wringing way possible--a shootout.

Although the Statesmen accomplished the PK victory feat in the Heart Quarterfinals a month earlier, the fates were not on William Penn's side and the title went to Dalton State by a 3-2 margin.  Feixas and John-Joe Mullane (Jr., Kent, England, Sports Management) both scored in the PK event.

William Penn did not leave Wichita empty-handed.  In addition to the runner-up trophy, Bohan, Sears, and O'Reilly were all named to the all-national tournament team, while Sears earned serious hardware as the NAIA National Championship Outstanding Defensive Player.

The extraordinary 2024 season was highlighted by a jaw-dropping number of records and accomplishments.

Most notably, the Statesmen won more games (20), scored more goals (66), had more shutouts (12), and allowed their lowest scoring average (0.81 goals per game) than ever before.

Seven players were named all-Heart, including first-teamers Bohan, Sears, O'Reilly (Heart Newcomer of the Year), and Menendez.  Bohan and Sears later garnered NAIA First-Team All-America recognition, while O'Reilly collected a Third-Team laurel.

In Their Words:

Sean Bohan: "This team is one of the closest I've ever been a part of.  Every single person is a massive contributor to what we have achieved as a team this year.  When I first came to William Penn, winning a trophy and getting to a national final was something that was spoken about, but there was uncertainty on whether it could be a reality.  Over this past season, we've shown anything is possible when you play with your mates!  I am so grateful to the coaches for giving me the opportunity to develop and achieve here, and to my teammates for sticking by me through the good and the bad!"

Luigi Mongan: "I'm still heartbroken that the season didn't end the way we wanted it in the final because this team deserves everything.  From a personal point, the season didn't go the way I wanted with injuries, but my teammates helped me through everything.  I have made brothers for life and I'm so happy we got to be the team that won the first trophy for this program.  I loved every second of this season and I'm so happy I got the opportunity to be a part of it."

Connor O'Reilly: "From when I first arrived here, the group of lads welcomed me in and I knew that I had made the right choice to transfer to William Penn.  The togetherness in the group was the key ingredient to our success.  It's one of the most enjoyable seasons I've ever had. I'd like to thank all the coaching staff that worked tirelessly behind the scenes to prep us for every single game during the season.  Shoutouts to (volunteer coach) Mauricio Nunez and (athletic trainer) Samantha Jacobs for their work. They were integral to our success all season long.  Hopefully this allows the program to go one step closer and win the national championship next year.  It's an amazing program and one that has a special place in my heart.  The memories created in one semester are ones that will stay with me for a lifetime."

Edan Sears: "One word to sum it all up: PROUD.  It's been a season full of ups and downs, but we dealt with them as one.  The squad had a great togetherness from the start, and it only continued to grow throughout.  It didn't quite finish with the fairytale ending, but it is a season that everything can be looked back on with pride for years to come."

Head Coach Simon Brown: "This was such a special group and everything came together at the right time; we had the right coaching staff, the right players, the right leaders.  The maturity of the returners carried over the newcomers.  We just had a different level of professionalism.  It is very rare to have a group of 24 guys and you really don't have any bad eggs.  Everyone contributed to the success of the team.  Hopefully this sets the standard for William Penn men's soccer for years to come.  Additionally, maybe it galvanizes not just our program, but shows others on campus what they can achieve, and in some way elevates the athletic department as a whole.  We hope this is something we can build from with these returners and a new group of new guys so that we can once again compete for a national title in 2025."