On a sun-drenched December Saturday afternoon, #3 seed Denver Men’s Soccer (14-3-4) faced the UMass-Amherst Minutemen at Pioneer Field in the NCAA Tournament Quarterfinals. A standing-room-only crowd sat, perched, and stood around Pioneer Field to witness a nearly flawless, 3-0 DU victory which earned DU its second-ever College Cup berth.
The first five minutes featured a hard press by UMass-Amherst on DU. That was the best the visitors could muster, though, as DU took control of the match in the 8th minute when DU took a corner from Sam Bassett and found Jason Belloli at the back post to beat goalie Alex Geczy, 1-0. Denver had a stranglehold on the match and then doubled its lead in the 41st minute when Ian Smith and Ian Welch combined on a beautiful diving Ronan Wynne header in the box that found the lower right corner of the goal for a 2-0 lead which carried into halftime.
Denver opened the second half on the front foot. Dylan Akau and Keegan Kelly fed a streaking Oje Ofunrein in the Minuteman box and Oje beat Geczy for the third and final goal of the match. The Minutemen were already good and beaten as Ofrunrein finally found the back of the net after creating numerous problems for them all day long. Denver goalie Isaac Nehme secured another clean sheet, three for three in his NCAA Tournament appearances this season, as he defended three shots on goal and did an excellent job organizing the Pioneers’ back line and distributing the ball.
Denver generated seven shots on goal for the day and six corner kicks against the Minutemen. Denver doubled up the visitors on corner kicks 6-3. Next up is a well-earned trip to the College Cup in Cary, N.C. Denver will take on the Vermont Catamounts (15-2-5, 4-1-2), who upset the #2 seed Pitt Panthers today, in the NCAA semifinal match next Friday. If Denver ends yet another Cinderella team’s bid, they will play in the NCAA Championship match the following Monday at 6:00 pm MT.
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