BLOOMFIELD, N.J. - - Trailing by two goals at the half, the Wilmington University men's soccer team stormed back to tally three goals in the second half to defeat fourth seeded Bloomfield College in a Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference quarterfinal matchup on the road on Thursday night at Foley Field.
With the win, the No. 5 Wildcats move on to play in the CACC Semifinals at Post University on Friday, and will face the host and number one seeded Eagles for a chance to play in the CACC Championship on Sunday. Bloomfield ends its season with a 7-6-3 record.
"Another one goal game with these guys and I'm so proud of our second half effort," head coach Nick Papanicolas said of the rivalry. "It's always a battle with Bloomfield and we are fortunate it's us going onto the conference semifinals."
The Wildcats trailed at the half, 2-0, but dominated in all the other aspects of the game, taking a 11-5 advantage in shots and holding a 7-1 advantage in corner kicks, but Deacon goalkeeper was up to the task, making four saves in the first 45 minutes to keep the visitors off the scoreboard.
In the meantime, the Deacons converted on two of their four shots in the first half scoring in the 11th minute of the match and again right before break in the 41st minute. The first goal was charged to Wildcat starting goalkeeper Chad Jenkins while the second was charged to substitute goalkeeper Spyros Stergiotis who came into the match in the 19th minute.
Following the halftime break, the Wildcats came out and put the pressure on the home team and put two goals on the board to tie the match in a matter of 44 seconds early in the second stanza.
Matko Novak put Wilmington on the board first 56:26 minutes into the contest with his second goal of the season. Kresimir Nurnberger dropped a ball off to Novak inside the 18-yard box and Novak slotted it home past Moran to cut the deficit to 2-1.
Not even a minute later, the Wildcats were at it again as Otis Williams put one home just under the crossbar following a feed from Lance Berry at the 57:10 mark to tie the match. It was Williams' fifth goal of the season, but the sophomore midfielder was not done for the match.
With the action back and forth and Stergioits needing to make a pair of sprawling saves of knuckling shots from Bloomfield's Cesar Ventura, the Wildcats again pounced in the 77th minute.
With a ball played into the box, Tommy Quaranta challenged Moran in the aired and managed to flick the ball on towards the goal line. With the keeper out and the ball slowing down as it approached the line, Williams came racing in and made sure the ball found the back of the net for his second of the match. His sixth goal of the season proved to be the game-winner for the Wildcats, as they move on to the CACC semifinals.
In other CACC quarterfinal action on Thursday, top seeded Post defeated No. 8 Caldwell on penalty kicks while No. 2 Dominican also needed penalty kicks to take care of No. 7 Holy family. Sixth seeded Nyack upset third seeded Philadelphia, 4-0, to also advance to the semifinals.
The CACC Semifinals begin on Friday at Post University, with the No. 1 Eagles and the No. 5 Wildcats starting the men's final two matches at 12 p.m.
