NEWARK, Del. - - On a day set aside for the senior class, playing its final regular season match at the WU Athletics Complex, the Wilmington University men's soccer team was led by a group of underclassmen in a 4-1 victory over Queens (N.Y.), rounding out the regular season on Wednesday afternoon.
The Wildcats (11-7 overall) will head into the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Tournament on Tuesday on a five match winning streak, having gone 9-1 in their final 10 matches of the regular season. Queens (7-6-3 overall) will be fighting for its East Coast Conference Tournament life this weekend, sitting in fifth place at the moment with only four teams advancing to the playoffs.
Sophomore Musa Wiah led the way on Senior Day, scoring two goals in the match, but it was senior Ray Kuemmer's mark that proved to be the game-winner in the 24th minute. Sophomore Vitor Lima capped the scoring for the Wildcats in the second half, off yet another corner kick goal by senior Kresimir Nurnberger and the Wildcats.
The Wildcats controlled the match in dominating fashion, outshooting the Knights, 10-3, for the match including a 5-1 advantage in the second half. Wilmington also earned a 4-2 advantage in corner kicks during the 90 minutes.
The scoring started in the first four minutes, as Wiah broke through the defense for a breakaway. The Queens defense coughed up the ball 40-yards from the goal and freshman Lance Berry pounced on the opportunity and quickly played a ball over the top to Wiah down the middle. Wiah touched it left past the keeper and slotted it home before the Knights could recover and clear it from the line.
The lone letdown of the match for the Wildcats happened in the 10th minute as senior Justus Henry could not clear a ball out of the backfield and turned it over. Hustling to regain possession, Henry fouled a Knight in the box, awarding a penalty kick to the Queens' top goal scorer. The Knights' Danny Stoke beat Wildcat keeper Chad Jenkins to his right into the side netting for the 1-1 tie.
From there, it was all Wilmington as Jenkins would only need to make one more stop in the match for the victory.
In the 24th minute, Kuemmer had an outstanding individual effort to give the Wildcats the lead for good. With the ball outside the left side of the 18-yard box, right beat his one defender and got the ball back to his right foot where he took a shot from 20 yards out, curling it around a diving keeping to the far post. It was his fourth goal of the season.
Wiah tacked on an additional goal with another outstanding individual effort, receiving a ball from Berry at the right side of the six-yard box. With his back to Knights' keeper Sean Geoghegan, Wiah back heeled a ball surprising his defender and Geoghegan and into the back of the net for his second goal of the match at the 51:52 mark of the match. His two goals give him four on the year for the Wildcats.
Nearing the end of the match, Lima got in on the action as the Wildcats converted another corner into a goal. With the senior Nurnberger playing the ball off the corner, the ball found its way to Lima who put a half volley swing on the ball right in front of the goal, scoring his first goal of his career.
Nurnberger now has nine assists on the season and 21 for his career, moving him into sole possession of second place on the Wilmington University men's soccer all-time list. He also now holds the top two spots for assists in a single season, tallying 12 last year and his nine this season.
The team recognized seniors Zach Hinte, Henry, Nurnberger and Kuemmer prior to the game for their contributions to the Wildcat program. Hinte, Nurnberger and Kuemmer each played for two seasons after transferring while Henry has been a part of the Green and White for all four years.
The Wildcats await their seeding and opponent for the upcoming CACC Tournament, but know they will play on Tuesday starting at 7 p.m. If they hold onto their current fourth spot in the standings, the team will host a playoff game on Tuesday, but Nyack and Bloomfield still have one game to play in the conference and could pass the Wildcats.
