Soccer: Wildcats lose in conference semi-finals

The top-seeded UNH men's soccer team took to Lewis Fields on Wednesday for its conference tournament semi-final game, but was not able to hold off fifth-seeded UMBC, as the Retrievers upset the Wildcats, 2-1, to advance to the conference championship game. 

Although the Retrievers were ranked fifth in the conference, their overall record of 13-5-0 was the best overall record out of all America East teams entering the tournament. They were in the top-five in AE in team goals per game (first), assists per game (first), goals against average (fifth), and shutouts (tied first). 

They wasted no time showing their goal scoring ability, as they struck first just eight minutes into the contest to put the Wildcats in an early hole. It was their first shot attempt of the game, as Mark Lubetkin took a pass at the top of the box and rifled a shot from 30 yards out that found the bottom right corner of the net. 

In the 24th minute the Wildcats had their best chance to score in the first half when Brad Hilton took a direct kick and sent it into the box. Freshman Charlie Roach gathered the pass and got a shot on the right side of the goal, but UMBC goalkeeper Phil Saunders gathered it to keep the Wildcats scoreless. 

UMBC was getting most of the chances in the first, and UNH seemed out of sync, uncharacteristic of how they played throughout the regular season in conference play. 

"That's the way soccer is," UNH head coach Rob Thompson said after the game. "I thought they were better than us today."

With four minutes remaining in the first half, UMBC struck again. This time, Andrew Bulls sent a corner kick to the top left corner of the box where Milo Kapor was waiting, and sent a screamer with his left foot past UNH keeper Colin O'Donnell to widen the gap to 2-0. 

UNH had a couple of chances early in the second half to get on the board, but couldn't convert. The first was when freshman Jordan Thomas took the ball off a throw in and found Roach for a header. It looked like his header might float over the finger-tips of Saunders in goal, but the goalie stretched out and dove backwards to flick the ball up and over the net.

The next was on a fast break up the left side by Chris Banks. He was being chased by UMBC defenders, who were making it difficult for him to cut back towards the middle and get a solid shot on net, so he settled for one at an angle that was easily saved by Saunders.

But Banks wasn't done. After an Alex Russell free kick in the 55th minute, there was a scrum in the box that eventually led to Josh Bronner getting the ball to Banks who found the back of the net to give the ‘Cats their first goal of the game, and bring the deficit back to one.

That was where the scoring would end, however, as the two teams battled back and forth for the final 35 minutes until the horn blew for the end of the game, and likely the end of the Wildcats' season.

"It's definitely disappointing," said junior defender Joe Corsello. "I feel bad for the seniors, they deserved more." 

One of those seniors was captain Chris Banks, who played what is likely his last collegiate soccer game, barring an unlikely at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. "It hasn't really hit me that it's over yet," Banks said. "But when we look back, we'll be really happy. It was a great season to go out on." 

Thompson had similar things to say.

"It's disappointing, but we shouldn't hang our heads too much. I thought it was a great season," he said. "The crowd [at the semi-finals game] was tremendous. I think there are some things we can build on and hopefully we can be right back here next year." 

The Wildcats end their season with a 9-7-2 record (6-1-1 in the conference), with the loss to UMBC being their first conference loss of the year.