WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – The #6 Amherst College men's soccer team narrowly overcame the #20 Middlebury College Panthers with a score of 2-1 after overtime in the NESCAC Championship semifinals Saturday on Cole Field.
GAME HIGHLIGHTS:
* After concluding their 2022 regular season by finishing third in the NESCAC standings and beating the Wesleyan University Cardinals in the NESCAC Championship quarterfinals last week, Amherst faced a strong Middlebury test. The Panthers finished fourth in the NESCAC, beat the Hamilton College Continentals in the NESCAC Championship quarterfinals, and held a 10-4-2 overall record for the season. The regular season contest between the two teams ended 1-1 on Gooding Field in Amherst, Mass.
* With less than five minutes from the first whistle, Middlebury created a strong opportunity to open the scoring. A whipped cross from the left connected with a Panther forward who headed from short range to force Amherst's goalkeeper, senior
Bernie White, to make an amazing reaction save. Amherst responded with the next key attacking chance. A glancing header from junior
Shawn Rapal floated down to sophomore
Niall Murphy who was a few yards away from the goal. Murphy drilled a powerful volley from the right side that was blocked by a Midd defender. The higher-seeded team, however, converted the next key chance into a goal. A long-range diagonal cross from Murphy was directed to sophomore top-scorer,
Fynn Hayton-Ruffner, who directed a header into the bottom left corner to net his eighth goal of the season. The remainder of the half was full of more end-to-end, exciting soccer - and a long-range volley from junior
Wyatt McCarthy that sailed just over the bar - but the score remained 1-0.
* One minute into the second half, the Panthers equalized. Jordan St. Louis took an accurate corner which was converted directly by Michael McFarlane. In response to conceding, Amherst pressed throughout the half to get a second goal. After 2 goals and an assist in the past two games, the current NESCAC Player of the Week, sophomore
Aidan Curtis, was a dangerous attacking threat throughout the game. Curtis was at the receiving end of a cross from junior
Ada Okorogheye which beat the goalkeeper but bounced off the post. With eighteen minutes remaining, Curtis was involved in a forward play again. He flicked on a long through from senior Alex Shamirzadi into the box; the ball trickled through a crowd of players ominously before the goalkeeper caught the bouncing ball. Finally, in the last minute, sophomore
Laurens ten Cate's header from short range was saved to push the game to overtime.
* Shortly into the first ten-minute half of overtime, Curtis made the score 2-1. The forward was in the right place at the right time to poke a cross with his knee into the goal amid a crowd of Amherst and Middlebury players in the penalty box. The Mammoths backed up their second goal with solid defensive play to close out a nail-biting end to the game. Sophomores
Simon Kalinauskas and
Ben Clark-Eden defended doggedly to prevent any late breakthroughs for the Panthers.
BY THE NUMBERS:
* Amherst now holds an 11-1-5 overall record (4-1-5 in NESCAC regular season; 2-0-0 in NESCAC post-season) for the season.
* Up next: Amherst's semifinal win on Saturday progresses them to the final. The Mammoths will take on the Connecticut College Camels on Sunday at noon on Cole Field.
* The Mammoths took 18 shots (8 on goal); Midd took 11 shots (7 on goal).
