WATERBURY, Conn. - - A late second half goal off a corner ended the Wilmington University men's soccer season, as Post University knocked the Wildcats out of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Tournament with a 1-0 victory in the semifinals on Friday afternoon at LaMoy Field.
The fifth seeded Wildcats outshot the top seed and host Eagles, 9-7, in the first half but couldn't find the back of the net for the match. In a highly competitive and hard fought matchup, Post held an 18-16 advantage in shots and a 4-3 advantage in corners, which saw the game-winner come in the 75th minute.
Recently being named CACC Rookie of the Year at Thursday night's annual banquet, Post's Raphael Moura proved his worth as he went up high off a corner from Matt Luis and header home the game's lone goal past Wildcat goalkeeper Spyros Stergioitis with 15:20 left on the scoreboard.
Stergioits kept the Wildcats in the match with five minutes left as he stuffed a breakaway opportunity by Eltany Morais, keeping Wilmington down by one with minutes left to play.
But the save by Stergiotis was not enough to spark a comeback by the Wildcats, unlike the two goal deficit the fifth seed overcame on Wednesday night in the quarterfinal. The last ditch efforts by the Wildcats with shots by Matko Novak, Musa Wiah and Kresimir Nurnberger were either blocked or went wide of the frame in the final 12 minutes of action.
Friday's match was a much different match than the game the two teams played against each other on the same field earlier in the season. Post defeated the Wildcats, 4-0, on September 22. Even still, the Wildcats could not turn Friday's matchup in favor of the visitors.
Stergiotis made eight saves for the match while Wiah and Tommy Quaranta paced the Wildcats with two shots on goal each. Wiah collected four shots to lead the team while Nurnberger and Novak each tallied three shots for the game.
Post's Errol Reid made six saves for the Eagles for the shutout.
With the win, the host Eagles move on to play in the CACC Championship on Sunday starting at 1:30 p.m. at LaMoy Field.
The Wildcats finished the 2012 season with a 12-8 overall record and advanced to the CACC Semifinals for the fourth time since 2004. Seniors Nurnberger, Zach Hinte, Ray Kuemmer and Justus Henry played their final match as a Wildcat, leading the team to its second highest win total all-time, and highest since the 2009 season.
