Men’s soccer season ends with loss to SUNY Oneonta
MIT finishes with most wins in program history
The MIT men’s soccer team, ranked No. 18 in the latest National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) poll, saw their season come to a close with a 2-0 loss to No. 8 SUNY Oneonta in the third round of the NCAA Tournament.
This year marks the furthest that MIT has made it into the tournament since back in 2003 when the Engineers went to the Elite Eight, before bowing out to Wheaton College 1-0. The Cardinal and Gray also rewrote the program’s record books this season as 11 new team records were broken including best winning percentage (.841), wins (18), longest win streak (8), unbeaten streak (14), most goals in a season (63), goals per game (2.9), goals against average (0.70), assists (50), total points (176), shutouts (13) and consecutive shutouts (6).
The Red Dragons opened the scoring at the 12:34 mark of the contest after a failed clear by the Engineers’ back line. Anthony Passiatore gathered the ball at the top right corner of the box and fired the ball into the upper left portion of the net for the early 1-0 advantage.
Oneonta State nearly added its second goal with less than ten seconds remaining in the first half off a corner kick, but MIT’s Vickram P. Goel ’18 kicked the ball away from the goalmouth as time expired off the clock.
Logan S. McLaughlin ’19 had the Engineer’s best scoring chance of the second half off a corner kick by Austin E. Freel ’16 as McLaughlin lifted the ball just over the crossbar, keeping the score at 1-0.
Just two minutes after the MIT chance and a scuffle in front of net minder Jake L. Amereno ’16, Oneonta’s Jake Sutherland kicked the ball into lower left corner of the net for the 2-0 lead in the 58th minute.
As time wound down in the second half, MIT put pressure on Oneonta’s back line as Kareem R. Itani ’17 and Sean D. Bingham ’16 had great looks on net, but just couldn’t convert on their opportunities with Vincent Pellegrino in net for the Red Dragons.
SUNY Oneonta outshot MIT by a 15-11 differential, while the Engineers held a slim 6-5 margin in corner kicks. Amereno (17-3-1) made three saves in net for MIT, while Pellegrino stopped the ball four times for Oneonta and improved his ledger to 18-3-1.
MIT sees its historic run come to a close at 18-3-1, while SUNY Oneonta (18-3-1) advanced to the National Quarterfinals.