By MARK MOSCHETTI
Seattle Pacific Sports Information
 
SEATTLE – On the way to winning the 1993 NCAA men's soccer championship, the Seattle Pacific Falcons wore their confidence on their sleeves.
 
Now, 30 years later, each of the players who combined to capture that crown will get to wear some jewelry on his finger.
 
SPU's 1993 national champions – the fifth in a collection of five crowns won in a span of 16 years – will bask in the spotlight on Saturday at Interbay Stadium as part of Falcon men's soccer Legacy Night.
 
Prior to the game against Colorado School of Mines – the finale on the non-conference portion of the schedule – the 45th anniversary 1978 champions, the 40th anniversary of the 1983 champions, the 30th anniversary of the 1993 champions, and the 55th anniversary of the entire soccer program will be recognized.
 
During halftime, the '93 team will be presented with championship rings, which some SPU alumni teamed up to make possible.
 
 

"We had no fear, going into every game acting like champions," said forward Jason Dunn, who kicked in what still stands as a single-season school record of 28 goals – with No. 28 capping a dramatic two-goal comeback against Florida Tech in the national semifinals. "We walked the walk. We came out and played and we made sure every team feared us."
 
Added Todd Stauber, an All-Conference midfielder who now owns and operates the company that helped guide the Falcon men on a tour of Spain in August, "When we got to training camp that year, we realized, 'Wow – we've got something here that's definitely a little bit special and different.' … There was definitely an internal confidence and an internal belief in what we were doing. Cliff (McCrath, SPU's Hall of Fame coach) instilled that."
 
BIG-TIME WINS VS. BIG-TIME OPPONENTS
The Falcons had every reason to be confident. Although they had dropped a heartbreaker in penalty kicks to Southern Connecticut in the 1992 national semifinals, eight starters from that team were back in the fold, including Dunn (who had 23 goals and nine assists) and goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann, who posted nine shutouts and a scant 0.76 goals-against average.
 
 

"We had a lot of personalities on that team, and Cliff did an amazing job of just managing us the whole year," Stauber said, "making sure guys were happy, felt needed and wanted, and were a part of what was going on."
 
On the way to a final record of 18-2-1, Seattle Pacific didn't just win games, it won games against some top-flight competition: 1-0 in overtime against Washington, 6-2 in overtime against Portland, and 8-4 against Division II power Tampa.
 
That game against Tampa in early October came just one day after a stunning 3-0 loss to South Carolina-Spartanburg.
 
"That was an eye-opener," Dunn recalled. "They were a good foe, a good team, and they just handed it to us. It showed how human we are. Then to come back the next game against the No. 1 team defensively in D2 and score eight goals on them – that was what we were all about.
 
"We had speed bumps, but we would get over it and get back on the gas full throttle," Dunn added. "From that point on, we were bound and determined to be champs."
 
ROLLING INTO THE NCAAs
Then, as Dunn said, the Falcons "walked the walk." The victory at Tampa was the first of seven in a row through the rest of the regular season. Their first NCAA playoff game was a 4-0 home rout of Sonoma State at Newport Stadium.

 

That earned them a trip to Melbourne, Florida, for the Final Four. The semifinal was against host and No. 1-ranked Florida Tech, and after a 3-3 tie through 90 minutes of regulation time, Seattle Pacific found itself down 5-3 approaching the final minute of the 30-minute overtime.
 
A header by Travis Connell made it 5-4 with 62 seconds left. Then Dunn, after taking a pass from twin brother James, let fly with a low 25-yard shot as the crowd was counting down the dying seconds, and it went into the net essentially as time expired.

 

Still deadlocked at 5-5 after a subsequent 30-minute sudden-death overtime, the game went to a penalty kick tiebreaker – and it went without starting goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann, who had been red-carded in the Sonoma State game, so was not available for the semis. Back-up Chuck Granade took over for all of regulation and the first 15-minute overtime period. But with the Falcons down 5-3, McCrath elected to put the goalkeeper's jersey on James Dunn as a combination goalkeeper and extra attacker.
 
Dunn kept the Panthers off the board for the second OT, all 30 minutes of sudden-death, and then even saved two of the tiebreaker PKs. With the tiebreaker still tied at 9-9 and entering the 13th round, a Florida Tech player launched his attempt over the crossbar.
 
Nate Daligcon stepped up for Seattle Pacific and drilled his shot in to win it, 10-9, and send the Falcons on to the finals against defending champion Southern Connecticut.
 
"Those are moments you never give up," Jason Dunn said. "We scrapped and scrapped, did everything we could to keep going. There was no panic in us at all. You're down two goals in overtime – what else do you do?"
 
STILL ONE MORE GAME TO PLAY – AND ONE MORE TO WIN
Although the title game against defending champion Southern Connecticut was now looming in two days, there was some thought that the final had just been played – ending around 12:40 a.m. Eastern time.
 
"There was an English writer," McCrath said, "and he wrote and said, "I have just witnessed not the greatest football game I've ever seen. I've just witnessed the greatest football game ever played,.'"
 
 

Jason Dunn was inclined to agree.
 
"We were hoping to play Southern Connecticut in the finals because they beat us in the semis the year before on PKs," he said. "(But) it was very anti-climactic. I thought the final was the semifinal – it was just exciting end-to-end soccer."
 
Now 30 years later, it's just as exciting to Dunn.
 
"I still watch it when I get a chance. Just the crowd and the way they reacted every time (Florida Tech) scored, then we scored. It was surreal," he said. "The atmosphere was the best anybody could ask for. I just wish they'd had bigger stands."
 
 

Nevertheless, now that they were this far, the Falcons wanted to bring the title home, and they took care of that business with a 1-0 victory against Southern Connecticut. Dominic Dickerson, a freshman forward, scored just 9 minutes, 47 seconds into the game – "a toe punch," as McCrath described it – and Hahnemann, made several big saves to keep the Owls off the scoreboard.
 
"After winning the semis in the manner that we won it – in the shootout, scoring two goals in the last minute to tie it and go to penalties – we had (a certain) resolve," Stauber said.
 
"I don't want to say it was destiny,"  he added. "But we knew we could do anything."
 
For the 1993 Falcons, that was simply a case of wearing their confidence on their sleeves.
 
Now, they'll get to wear championship rings on their fingers.