Penn College Wildcats men’s soccer team reached a milestone by advancing to the United East Championship for the first time in program history. The No. 5 seeded Wildcats defeated top-seeded St. Mary’s, 2-1, in the semifinal match held Wednesday in St. Mary’s City, Maryland. With this win, Penn College improved its season record to 11-6-2, while St. Mary’s ended their season at 13-6-1.
The Wildcats are set to face No. 2 seed Penn State Harrisburg on Saturday at 1 p.m.
During the match, both teams had two shots on target in the first half but remained scoreless going into halftime. Cooper Smith and Joshua Hudak each had attempts for Penn College that were stopped by St. Mary’s goalkeeper Justin Crismale in the sixth and thirtieth minutes respectively; Crismale also made saves in the thirty-third and thirty-fourth minutes.
St. Mary’s took a lead with an unassisted goal in the sixty-sixth minute after Crismale made his third save of the game just before that play. Three minutes later, Mason Kostick assisted Logan Pietrzak for Penn College’s equalizer in the sixty-ninth minute. Diego Diaz scored what would be the winning goal for Penn College off a pass from Cooper Smith in the seventy-eighth minute.
Crismale secured two more saves following that go-ahead goal and made one final stop with seven seconds left to preserve Penn College’s victory.
Statistically, St. Mary’s outshot Penn College twenty to twelve overall (seven to four on target), and both teams earned three corner kicks each during the match. Crismale finished with six saves for Penn College.
