Washington U. Falls to No. 1 Trinity, 2-1, in Sectional Finals

TRINITY-WU BOX | PHOTO

St. Louis, Mo., November 18, 2007 – No. 1 Trinity University hung on to defeat No. 20 Washington University, 2-1, in the 2007 NCAA Division III Sectional Final at Francis Field in St. Louis, Mo., on Sunday afternoon. With the win, Trinity advances to its third NCAA Division III semifinal in school history. The Tigers also made semifinals appearances in 2002 and 2003. They will face the winner of the Messiah and Montclair State Disney’s Wide World of Sports in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., on Friday, Nov. 23.

Trinity (22-0) had a litany of offensive chances early in the first half, finally getting on the scoreboard in the eighth minute. The Tigers’ first scoring chance came just 3:15 into the game, when Michael Robertson headed a corner kick off of the crossbar. Trinity came right back at WU just four minutes later, when junior Patrick Floeck fired a shot from 20-yards out, that Washington University sophomore goalkeeper John Smelcer punched out of bounds.

On the ensuing corner kick, Tigers’ junior Noe Casanova sent a ball into the middle of the Bears’ box, finding senior Kyle Altman, who headed in a goal, his fifth score of the season.

Washington U. (16-5-2) recorded its first shot on goal in the 14th minute, when sophomore John Hengel blasted a 10-yard shot from the left side, but senior goalkeeper David Steinberg smothered the scoring chance.

Smelcer made two miraculous saves just 1:10 apart to keep Washington U. in the game. The first came after the Bears were whistled for a foul, only a few inches outside of its box, resulting in a free kick for Trinity 15-yards away from goal. Senior Robert C’deBaca took a quick pass off the kick, and fired a shot around the Bears’ wall, but Smelcer was waiting, making a diving save to his right side.

Just 1:10 later, senior Ben Stewart rocketed a shot from 25-yards out towards the upper-right corner of Washington U.’s net, but Smelcer leapt towards the ball and fully extended his body to knock it out of bounds. Smelcer finished the first half with one goal against, but he also made four saves.

Hengel nearly evened the score 3:51 into the second half.  Taking the ball and sprinting into the Trinity zone, Hengel pulled up at the 15-yard line, dribbling around one defender and firing a shot that sailed just over the Tiger goal.

Trinity nearly pulled ahead, 2-0, in the 63rd minute, but Smelcer broke up the Tigers’ point-blank scoring chance. Junior Tyrone Petrakis sent a cross to Floeck, but Smelcer came out to meet Floeck just as he received the ball knocking down the hard shot. However, Trinity would finally get on the scoreboard for a second time just five minutes later.

Floeck’s persistence paid off in Trinity’s second score of the game. After Smelcer blocked his first shot attempt, the ball was not entirely out of harm’s way, and ended up between Smelcer and the Bears’ goal. Floeck jumped over Smelcer but found Washington U. senior Onyi Okoroafor waiting for him at the goal line. Okoroafor attempted to clear the ball out of the zone, but it deflected off of another defender and back to Floeck, who dumped in the short-range goal.

“I told my players before the game ‘One goal will not win this game,” said Trinity University coach Paul McKinlay, “We felt a little more comfortable once we got to 2-0, but Joe Clarke’s a great coach and you can see his ability to squeeze everything out of his players, right to the final kick. We’re just happy to get out of St. Louis and on to the next round.”

Washington University did get on the scoreboard with just under five minutes remaining in the game. Junior Kellen Hayes served a free kick into the Trinity box. Freshman Harry Beddo headed Hayes’ pass from the far post back to Hengel who was waiting at the edge of the six-yard box to knock in the goal.

Hengel’s goal sparked the WU offense, which had several more quality scoring opportunities in the game’s final moments, but the Bears could not manage to draw even.

“The guys played a great a game,” said Washington University head coach Joe Clarke. “It was hard early on, but we changed the we played to tried to shut down their wingers; I think we accomplished that. We got an amazing performance out of Smelcer and I’m just really proud of this group. They did a phenomenal job.”

Trinity ended the game with a 14-8 shot advantage, 8-4 in shots on goal. Smelcer ended the game with six saves, while Trinity goalkeeper David Steinberg had three.