BALTIMORE - For the second time in three years, UMBC won a penalty kick shootout against University of New Hampshire after playing 110 minutes of scoreless soccer to claim the America East men's soccer title Saturday evening at Retriever Soccer Park. Phil Saunders stopped Ryan McNabb's penalty kick attempt to seal it as UMBC won the shootout, 4-2, and clinched its third ever NCAA tournament appearance.
The Retrievers, who extended their unbeaten their streak to seven games (6-0-1), will learn its NCAA draw on Monday at 5:30 p.m. They won a first round contest in 2010 and America East teams have advanced to the second round in eight of the last 11 years. UMBC
Saunders, who made five saves including one from point-blank range in the second overtime period, and stopped two of the four penalty kicks he faced, earned the championship's Most Outstanding Player honor. He did not allow a goal in 200 minutes during tournament play and recorded two shutouts.
UMBC (11-4-5) controlled the first half, outshooting UNH, 6-1, in the opening frame and earning seven corner kicks to the Wildcats' six. The Retrievers' best chance came just 12:18 into the game when Kadeem Dacres, a second-team all-conference selection, unloaded a shot from 20 yards out on UNH's Travis Worra, but, the goalkeeper dove to his left and knocked the shot just wide for one of his seven saves. Worra, an All-Championship team selection, tied a tournament record with shutouts.
UNH (7-7-6), which fell to 0-2-2 all-time in men's soccer championship games, got its first good chance of the game in the opening minutes of the second half. Jeff Turner got the ball on the left side and fired on net, but
UMBC's Phil Saunders stopped the point-blank blast. Robbie Palumbo one-timed the rebound but Saunders was there again.
The two teams played relatively for much of the second half as UMBC held a slight 9-7 shot edge and the game headed to overtime for the second time in three years.
UNH, which has not allowed a goal in its last six America East Championship games, a tournament record, had the two best chances in overtime. David Schlatter had both
opportunities, hitting the crossbar from 10 yards out in the 96th minute and getting a point-blank opportunity from six yards out that was stopped by Saunders.
Both teams converted their first attempts of the sh
oot, as Milo Kapor hit for UMBC and Jordan Thomas connected for UNH. Mamadou Kansaye then hit for UMBC, but Saunders' stopped Lukas Goerigk's attempt to give UMBC a 2-1 edge. After both teams hit their third attempt, Kadeem Dacres connected for the Retrievers and set up Saunders to seal the win and he did, diving to his right and stopped McNCabb's try to clinch the championship.
Saunders and Worra were joined on the all-championship team by teammates Dacres, Liam Paddock and Dave Vaeth, UNH's Thomas and Alex Hussein, University of Vermont's Joe Losier and Sean Sweeney, Stony Brook University's Leonardo Fernandes and Alejandro Fritz, University at Albany's Jeff Pierre and Binghamton University's Trey Jasenski.