The men’s soccer team won a thriller in the first game of the NCAA tournament Saturday, beating St. Scholastica 2-1 in double overtime.
The Tommies had several opportunities to score and recorded 12 shots on goal throughout the game. The Saints defense, anchored by junior goalkeeper Sandy Davidson-Hunt, held the Tommies silent through most of regulation.
St. Scholastica scored the only goal of the first half with a successful penalty kick by senior forward Kyle Farrar. The penalty kick resulted from a controversial tripping call in the goalie box on St. Thomas defender Josh Boris.
“You just have to be positive,” said Tommie goalkeeper Aidan Hogan after the game. “Whether it’s a bad call or not you can’t really change it, so you just have to get off it and keep playing.”
Both teams had several opportunities to score throughout the second half, but both defenses played well inside the box. After the penalty kick, Hogan didn’t allow another goal through.
“When we came off at halftime, we were all convinced the second half was not going to be the last 45 minutes of our season,” Hogan said.
The Tommies had their best chance to tie the game on a penalty kick of their own in the 81st minute of the game, but senior defender Mark Heydt’s kick hit off the top of the crossbar.
Only seven minutes later, however, senior forward Tony Kuplic found the net from the corner of the goalie box to tie the game, ultimately forcing overtime. It was Kuplic’s first goal season of the season.
The first overtime period passed without either team scoring. In second overtime, the Tommies sustained a near three-minute offensive drive in the Saints’ zone but could not put it in goal.
With just under two minutes left in double overtime, Tony Kuplic scored his second goal of the season to put the Tommies up for good.
The Tommies will face the winner of the Luther-St. Norbert game Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
“As a team we’re just going to have to go out everyday and play like it’s the last game of the season, which unfortunately it could be,” Hogan said. “We just have to keep playing how we have been and we’ll have the best chance of moving forward.”
Noah Brown can be reached at brow7736@stthomas.edu