Throughout the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) tournament, the men’s soccer team rallied behind its perfect defense to squeak by Old Dominion and UNC Wilmington on penalty kicks after scoreless draws in regulation.
Unfortunately for the Huskies, being only nearly perfect wasn’t enough in the final, and NU’s lone blemish in the tournament – a 38th minute goal by George Mason’s Kwame Adjeman-Pamboe – proved to be their undoing in a 1-0 loss to the Patriots at UNC Wilmington Soccer Stadium in Wilmington, N.C. yesterday.
Pamboe sent the shot past junior keeper Scott Partridge, who made six saves in the contest and hadn’t allowed a goal in the tournament until that point on a pass from Lucas Pardew. The Huskies put three shots on goal, but were ultimately unable to respond.
“George Mason was in a pretty good groove offensively,” said junior captain Brendan Ennis. “We did well up until the goal to handle their pressure, but it was just kind of an unfortunate goal. The luck didn’t really go our way with it.”
Ennis said the team improved in the second half as they battled to tie the game.
“We really picked the pressure up with about 25 minutes to go,” he said. “We really had a lot of quality scoring chances and a couple of the best scoring chances in the game. We just couldn’t convert.”
Northeastern advanced to the final by topping UNC Wilmington Friday. That game, like the Huskies’ quarterfinals win over Old Dominion, was scoreless after regulation and two overtime periods. NU was outshot by the Seahawks 9-5, but managed to keep UNC Wilmington from finding a goal.
In the shootout, junior midfielder Lars Okland led off by converting his penalty kick attempt. UNCW’s Daniel Roberts evened the score with his successful attempt, and junior midfielder Alexander Volk and UNCW forward Matt Brown traded goals.
Sophomore forward Nick Lueders and sophomore defender Matt Pentowski both hit their next shots, while UNCW defender Indy Smith was stopped by Partridge, opening up the door for NU. Ennis capitalized, and converted the game-winning goal to send the Huskies to the CAA final.
With the loss to George Mason, Northeastern closed out its season with a record of 7-5-9 overall, and 5-2-4 in the CAA. Okland, Volk and Ennis were named to the CAA All-Tournament Team.
In addition to the tournament honors, four members of the team were honored at the CAA’s awards banquet Thursday night in Wilmington. Okland was named to the All-CAA first team, along with sophomore defender Petur Vidarsson. Volk and freshman forward Mike Kennedy earned All-CAA third team honors. Kennedy was also named to the CAA All-Rookie Team.
The Huskies will lose just two seniors next season, forward Lewis Ehrlich and defender Jonathan Batista. Ennis said retaining so many players gives the team expectations of an even better season next year.
“It’s really a nice building block to work off of,” he said. “We’re going to be expecting more next season, and our goals are going to be for a CAA championship and NCAA tournament appearance.”
Meanwhile, this season was considered a success by the team, he said, after a deep run in the conference tournament.
“Whenever you get there, you want to finish on that championship note,” he said. “But with all the ups and downs that went on this season, and all the things that went against us, in hindsight we did well for ourselves to get in a position where we could win a championship. It just wasn’t our day, but it was a great season.”
