NEWPORT NEWS, Va.—Swarthmore College Men's Soccer's first foray into the NCAA Tournament since 2012 shaped up to be an instant classic on Saturday afternoon on the campus of Christopher Newport University.
The Garnet (11-3-4) squared up with the No. 17 Roanoke College Maroons in a first-round matchup that needed to be resolved with penalty kicks.
The two teams concluded golden-goal overtime knotted at 2-2, but Swarthmore fought off Roanoke 4-2 in the shootout to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Junior forward Conor Gill, who got his first start of the season on Saturday, proved to be the hero, netting the deciding PK to give Swarthmore the match. Gill stuttered and then fired off a hard shot for the bottom left corner that Roanoke's goalkeeper got a hand on but couldn't stop. The Garnet team rushed out to mob Gill as the shot clinched the match.
Roanoke canned the first PK and Swarthmore's Ben Lau followed with a successful tap to the right side getting the goalkeeper to guess the wrong way.
Swarthmore freshman goalkeeper Max Kral, in probably the biggest moment of his collegiate career, then came up with a save on the next Roanoke attempt.
Charley Ward followed with another roller to the right side after Roanoke guessed the wrong way.
Kral again came up with a save, anticipating the shot to the right and diving for the stop.
Swarthmore then took the 3-1 lead as Woojin Shin hooked in a shot into the top shelf, left side.
Roanoke responded to make it 3-2, setting the stage for Gill to clinch the match.
In the run of play, Kral finished with three saves.
Swarthmore tallied up 17 shots to Roanoke's 10.
The Garnet took to the scoreboard first, as freshman forward Bless Tumushabe netted a goal in the 39th minute, his fifth of the season. He wrangled a deflection near the middle of the field and broke towards goal with a lot of open space in front of his right foot. He whisked off a shot that Roanoke's keeper dove for but couldn't handle and the shot rolled into the goal.
However, Swarthmore's lead was short-lived as Roanoke evened the score less than a minute later.
Senior forward Omri Gal netted the go-ahead goal in the 60th minute. After getting a feed from Ward, Gal dribbled through four defenders, found a groove and fired off a right-footed shot into the back left corner of the net.
In the 84th minute, Roanoke retaliated with a goal volleyed in after a wind-aided corner kick.
With the game in the second overtime, Swarthmore fired off six shots and had a great opportunity in the 103rd minute. Roanoke made a desperation slide tackle to prevent a clear goal-scoring opportunity just outside of the box. The Roanoke player was sent off with a straight red card and the Garnet took a free kick from straight on and right outside the box but were unable to capitalize.
Swarthmore moves on to face No. 23 Christopher Newport University on their turf in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday at 3 p.m.
