Jackson, MS-Belhaven University and the University of St. Thomas will meet up for the first time in the history of the two programs Saturday in the 2010 NAIA Men's Soccer National Championship Opening Round at H.T. Newell Field. The Blazers enter this weekend's contest with a record of 15-1-3 overall and are ranked 10th in the latest NAIA Top 25 Coaches' Poll. The Celts are 10-6-2 overall and after starting the season 3-4-1 have won seven of their last 10 games to help punch their ticket to the national tournament.

The Blazers are the eighth seed and will be making their seventh overall appearance in the national tournament and first since 1994. Belhaven has an all time record of 8-6-3 in NAIA National Tournament play including an NAIA National Championship in 1992. Belhaven earned one of seven at large bids after being eliminated from the Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament in a 0-0 double overtime tie to Southern Polytechnic University last week. The Runnin' Hornets got the better of the Blazers in a penalty kick shootout to advance to the SSAC championship game. Belhaven Head Coach Steve DeCou, who was named the SSAC Coach of the Year, is in his fourth season as the Blazers head coach and has put the program back on the national stage. Earlier this season DeCou picked up his 100th career win and owns an overall coaching record of 104-86-15. His record at Belhaven including games this season is 49-17-7.

Belhaven is led on offense by freshman forward Guilherme Brandao who has 12 goals, seven assists and 31 points. Senior Stefan Fernandez has also been a force on offense with a career high nine goals, six assists and a team high four game winning goals. Both Fernandez and Brandao were named to the SSAC All-Conference Team. The Blazer offensive attack is very balanced with a number of players who are capable of scoring in any given match. So far this season, Belhaven has had 14 different players score at least one goal. Belhaven has combined to outscore opponents 56-10 this season.

On defense, Belhaven has been one of the toughest teams to score against in the country. The Blazers are ranked 10th in the NAIA in total shutouts with nine and senior goalkeeper Gautier Troch is a major reason why. Troch has 77 saves to his credit with a save percentage of 88.5. He led the Southern States Athletic Conference in goals against per game at .530 and is seventh in the NAIA in that category. His success in net has been recognized on the conference and national levels with five SSAC Defensive Player of the Week Awards and one NAIA Defensive Player of the Week honor. SSAC All-Conference defender and Newcomer of the Year Alex Rodriguez is also a big reason for Belhaven's success on defensive. Rodriguez can also score when need be with four goals including three game winning scores in 2010.

The University of St. Thomas (TX) is making its first appearance in an NAIA Men's Soccer National Championship. The Celts are one of 24 automatic qualifiers in this year's tournament field and qualified for the tournament by being the runner up in the Association of Independent Institutions tournament. The Celts got into the AII Championship with a 2-1 overtime win over Lambuth, but lost 1-0 to fourth ranked Simon Fraser University (BC) although they gave them a run for their money in the championship game. In four short years, St. Thomas Head Coach Aaron Champenoy has taken a first year program in 2007 to the national tournament in 2010. Champenoy had tremendous success at Bellevue University (Neb) prior to arriving at St. Thomas and is 70-42-6 as a head coach with 32 of those wins coming at St. Thomas.

The Celts offensive attack is led by senior forward Jad El-Masri and junior forward Rafael Bustos with six goals each. El-Masri has 15 total points with three assists and Bustos has 14 points with a pair of assists to go along with his six goals in 2010. Senior midfielder Efrain Orozco can also put the ball into the back of the net as evidenced by his fourth goals. Senior midfielder Shane Rojas has three goals and three assists adding another option to the Celts offense.

On defense, senior Lukas Miko Simon has seen the majority of time in net. Simon has made 78 saves and has surrendered 23 goals on the season. Opposing teams have also had trouble scoring on St. Thomas as the Celts have blanked seven of their opponents on the year. Saturday's kickoff is slated for 4:00 PM and fans can follow the action through Live Stats by visiting the Belhaven Athletics website at blazers.belhaven.edu.