HOBOKEN, NJ (November 6, 2019) --- Senior
Alastair Dinnan scored twice and the defense did the rest as the fourth-seeded King's College men's soccer team went on the road to defeat top-seeded Stevens Institute of Technology 2-1 from the DeBaun Athletic Complex on Wednesday evening in a Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom semifinal match.
The victory for the Monarchs (15-4-1) avenged their regular season loss to the Ducks (12-4-2) back on October 19 by an identical 2-1 score. It also sends their Monarchs into the MAC Freedom Championship match for the second straight year where they will once again face Eastern University down in St. Davids. The second-seeded Eagles were a 1-0 overtime winner over visiting Misericordia University in the other semifinal matchup.
Stevens came out as the aggressors early as Cristiano Hocken sent a shot high in the opening minutes. The Monarchs were unfazed by the early attack of the host and countered with the first goal of the match in the seventh minute on their first shot attempt.
Dylan Ramage sent a pass into the box for
Alex Showalter. Showalter, the reigning MAC Freedom Offensive Player of the Week headed the ball out wide life to Dinnan who had a beautiful finish sending the ball into the right side of the net for his third goal of the year.
The Ducks responded with a variety of shots that went high and wide of the net in the next 10 mintues of play. King's keeper
Connor McKeown came up with his first big save of the night in the 21t minute stopping a Adam Silva shot from inside the box. A rebounded attempt by Andino Bruno was blocked by a Monarch defended and then cleared out of harm's way. The Monarchs countered with a strong offensive attack of their own in the 28th minute as
Kyle Shalvey and Showalter both had attempts saved by SIT keeper Aedan Boriotti. The teams played even over the final 17 minutes of the half with KC taking a 1-0 lead into the locker room.
King's came out of the locker room hungry for an insurance goal and got exactly that 2:21 into the period as Dinnan scored his second goal of the night. The senior forward recovered a loose ball in the left corner of the box and fired a shot past the keeper for his ninth career goal. Six minutes later Shalvey nearly gave the Monarchs another goal but his attempt just missed the right post off a long free kick by Ramage.
The Monarch defense played excellently against a pressing Stevens squad that was doing everything they could to cut the lead in half. Every time the hosts would build up their attack into the box, a Monarch defender was there to either block a shot or clear the ball away. Stevens managed to get a shot on goal in the 72nd as McKeown came up with another big save knocking the ball over the goal line for a corner kick. The Monarchs cleared the corner kick away
Stevens kept the pressure on the Monarchs with a pair of headers in the 74th minute. KC blocked the first attempt and then the second sailed high. The Monarchs put together a small attack of their own in the 78th minutes with a pair of shots of goal. Boriotti made a big save on a
Kevin Kolaski shot setting up a corner kick for King's Ramage sent the kick into the box where
August Axtman collected the ball and took a shot toward goal that Boriotti scooped up.
The Ducks countered the Monarch attack with an array of shot in the box. Each time a Monarch defender stepped in front of the shot keeping everything away from McKeown. The Ducks managed to find the back of the net in the 84th minute as Sean Masu sent a low line drive into the lower left from the edge of the box off an assist by Leo Musacchia. Stevens kept the pressure up following the goal as McKeown came up with his biggest save of the night on a Jacob Curtis shot in the 87th minute. The Monarchs blocked two more shots and then cleared the ball down field as the clock wound down to zero.
The Ducks held a 21-9 shot advantage in the match, but the Monarchs put more shots on goal with a 7-4 advantage. McKeown made three saves in net while his counterpart, Boriotti made five. Dinnan scored two goals for the second time is his career having previously also scored twice against Delaware Valley last year. The assist for Showalter was his second while Ramage recorded his fifth assist of the year.
King's will now take on Eastern in a rematch of last year's Championships match on Saturday down in St. Davids on Olson Field. The kickoff time has not been set yet. EU defeated KC 1-0 on a 74th minute goal back on October 5 to start conference play. The Monarchs will also be looking to avenge last year's 3-0 defeat in the MAC Freedom Championship.
--MONARCHS--
