The Rose-Hulman men’s soccer team is looking to earn a Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) tournament championship and an automatic bid the NCAA Division III Men’s Soccer Tournament; both feats have yet to be accomplished in school history for men’s soccer. In the past, Rose has come just shy, falling second to Transylvania University. Transylvania, against whom Rose is playing in the championship match tomorrow (Saturday) at 1pm at Jim Rendel Field, has captured the title and bid for the past four years and is looking for their fifth.
This time around, the Fightin’ Engineers have a slight upper hand, going into the match having beaten the Pioneers 2-1 in overtime earlier this season and earned hosting rights for the championship game. The Engineers have posted victories over all the other teams in the conference except for Anderson University, who did not make the HCAC tournament.
Rose came out victorious this past Wednesday over Hanover 1-0 in the HCAC tournament semifinals after more than 109 minutes of play. Both teams battled though the 90 minutes of regulation play and another 19 minutes of overtime, with Rose out-shooting the Panthers 25-8, before sophomore civil engineering major Corbin Clow was fouled in the penalty box with only 10 seconds to go in second overtime period. Sophomore mechanical engineering major Mitch Buffington put the ball in the net on the resulting penalty kick to give Rose the win. If Hanover had held off the Engineers for another 10 seconds, the winner would’ve been decided by a penalty kick shootout.
Currently, Rose stands at 13-4-3 on the season, just two wins shy of the school record 15 wins, set back in 2006. The 2006 season was the last and, to this point, only time Rose has been in a conference title game, where they fell in Lexington, Ky. to the Pioneers 3-0.
Earlier this season, Rose snapped Transylvania’s 16 HCAC game win streak, which dated back to 2006, with the 2-1 overtime victory. In the tightly contested match, the Pioneers had scored first early in the 17th minute, but Rose answered shortly after in the 22nd minute. The game remained tied through the rest of regulation and another nine minutes of overtime before junior electrical engineering major Phil Meyer scored the winning goal.
The team that advances to the NCAA Division III Men’s Soccer Tournament will play next week in the first round. The field of teams and host schools will be announced early Monday next week.