NEWARK, Del. - - Every lead the Wilmington University men's soccer took on Saturday afternoon, Davis & Elkins had an answer, ultimately leading to a 4-2 victory in the Second Round of the NCAA Super-Region 1 Tournament at the WU Athletics Complex.
With the win, 6th seeded Davis & Elkins moves on to the Third Round and will play the winner of No. 2 Charleston and No. 7 American International which is being played on Sunday. The loss ends the Wildcats' season with a 16-4-1 overall record and their sixth trip to the NCAA Tournament Second Round.
Shawn Genus converted a penalty kick in the 15th minute, scoring his 21st goal of the season to give the Wildcats an early 1-0 edge. But the Senators came back in the 28th minute, getting a ricochet goal to knot things up. Daniel Cerezo crossed one into the box that went off a Wilmington defender and sped past Konstantinos Parisis at the 27:07. The teams went into the halftime break knotted at 1-1.
Out of the break, the Wildcats again got on top with a beautiful setup from Shoki Yoshida and one-time finish from Marcus Hedemann. Dimitrios Passalis played a long ball to Hakim Williams down the right side. Williams played it into the box from Shoki Yoshida who fed it across to a charging Hedemann on the back post for the easy one-time goal. It was Hedemann's fourth goal of the season, coming at the 52:59 mark.
But just as the smoke cleared from the Wilmington celebration, Davis & Elkins was on the attack again, scoring just 32 seconds later to retie the game, 2-2. O'Keefe Cunningham was played into the box on the right side and he fed a ball back into the middle of the box as David Jara tapped it in from in close just 32 seconds later at the 53:31 mark.
Davis & Elkins kept pressuring the Wildcats and eventually broke through again the 72nd minute. The team that takes the most corner kicks in the country, the Senators scored to take the lead off their fourth of the day. Gianluca Fiorini served one in and found the head of Haruki Yamazaki for the go-ahead goal.
Shoki Yoshida had a half volley to tie the game at the 79th minute, but Senator goalkeeper Jeremy Coste was there to punch it up over the bar and keep Davis & Elkins ahead.
A second yellow had the Wildcats playing with 10-men in the final 7:26, and the Senators took full advantage, tacking on an insurance goal for the 4-2 victory.
Wilmington led in shots, 18-14, but the Senators had the edge in the second half, 7-6, in addition to shots on goal, 10-9. Wilmington held the slight edge in corners, 5-4. Konstantinos Parisis made six saves for the Wildcats while Jeremy Coste made seven stops for the win for the Senators.
