Ticket punched! Men’s Soccer heads to NCAA Final Four
Forward Elliot Spatz ’26 scored twice in the span of six minutes to lead the Connecticut College Men’s Soccer team past No. 10 Denison 2-1 in the Elite Eight round of the NCAA DIII Championship—and on to the Final Four for the second time in program history.
With the win, the Camels, who won the NESCAC Championship earlier this month, improve to 13-2-7. Conn will face Washington & Lee University (15-3-6) in the national semifinals at 9 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 5 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The game is a rematch of the 2021 national semifinals, which Conn won 2-1 in overtime; the Camels then went on to win the 2021 National Championship.
Denison scored first in the quarterfinal matchup, with Henri Heyes finding the back of the net with a shot off a corner kick at 13:05. Looking to answer, Conn defender Alessandro Horvath Diano ’25 connected with Spatz, whose shot from well outside the box beat Denison keeper Tommy Prokos to tie the game at 29:59.
A little less than six minutes later, the Camels took the lead for good. Jack Lavorel ’26 headed a ball played into the box to Horvath Diano, who tapped it down to Spatz, who beat Prokos again to make it 2-1 at 35:44.
Conn outshot Denison 19-9 overall, including 8-7 on shots on target, while the Big Red held a slim 5-4 edge on corner kicks. Peter Silvester ’25 picked up the win between the sticks, finishing with six saves.
In the Sweet 16 round on Saturday, Conn played No. 14 Kenyon to a 2-2 draw before defeating the Owls 3-0 on penalty kicks. Kenyon scored first just over 11 minutes into the game, but Conn answered three minutes later when Gavin Vanden Berg ’26 scored off of an assist from Sam Boehm ’25. Kenyon scored again 76:29 minutes into the contest, but once again, they wouldn’t hold the lead for long. At 79:23, Rye Jaran ’25 scored the equalizer. After two scoreless overtime periods, the game went to penalty kicks.
Conn shot first, and Matt Scoffone ’25 wasted no time putting the Camels in front. Gerardo Martinez was the first shooter for Kenyon, but his shot was stopped by the ever-reliable Silvester. Marco Perugini ’27 converted to put Conn up 2-0, before Eamon Dujakovich rang his effort off the crossbar. Spatz converted his try for Conn to push the lead to 3-0. Kenyon’s Alem Duratovic then put his spot kick over the crossbar, sending Conn back to the Elite Eight.
Fans can watch the semifinal matchup via the NCAA livestream at 9 p.m. EST on Dec. 5. On the other side of the bracket, fellow NESCAC members Middlebury and Amherst will square off at 5:30 p.m. EST. The Championship match will be played between the two semifinal winners at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7.
Source: http://www.conncoll.edu/news/news-archive/2024/soccer-to-final-four/
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