ST. DAVIDS, Pa.—Eastern University Men's Soccer battled the King's College Monarchs into the second half of extra time in Saturday's Freedom Conference Championship, but the Monarchs defended their crown with a 2-1 win.
Monarch junior Daniel Hernandez headed in the game-winner 3:04 into the second period of overtime to give King's (15-5-1) back-to-back Freedom Championships and an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
The Eagles (15-4) will have to keep their fingers crossed for an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament and will find out their fate on Monday's NCAA Selection Show starting at 1:30 p.m.
Eastern out-paced King's in shots taken on Saturday, firing 19 shots to the Monarchs' 13. Unfortunately for the Eagles, only four of those attempts were on goal. The Eagles missed just wide on several occasions, had a shot carom off the inside of the post and back out, and had two goals called back because of an offsides call and a foul.
The Eagles thought they had taken the lead in the 15th minute when JD Saracco served in a great restart kick into the box near the left post that was headed by Jadon Ramsing into the net. The Eagles' celebration was abruptly halted as a very close offsides call was made.
Eastern senior forward Eric Giovagnoli gave the Eagles the lead officially on a penalty kick goal in the 25th minute. Giovagnoli drew a foul on the left wing, just inside the top corner of the box and stepped to the penalty spot where he sank his fourth PK of the year. He elected to power the ball down the middle of the goal as Monarchs' goalie Tyler Wilson dove to his left. The Eagles posted five wide shots to close out the half but still hung to a 1-0 lead going into the locker room.
Three minutes into the second half, the Eagles had a chance that best summed up just how close the Eagles came to winning this game on several different occasions. Eagles' forward Josh Cirocco drew three defenders out towards him on the wing, opening up the middle of the box for Giovagnoli to fill. Cirocco slid a pass to Giovagnoli who took a shot from the left side about eight yards out. His blistering shot hit the inside of the far post and ricocheted out of the goalmouth and into the hands of goalkeeper Wilson.
King's finally knotted the game at 1-1 in the 63rd minute on Chris Nygren's eighth goal of the year. Daniel Hernandez kept a run alive in the right corner of the field and found Eric Foster who was able to make a pass halfway across the box to Nygren who one-timed the shot and slipped it between Eagles' keeper Jamie Stratton and the left post.
Eastern gained its first corner kick of the game in the 71st minute and proceeded to set up scoring opportunities with seven corners the remainder of regulation. The Eagles had a run of four consecutive corner kicks with five minutes to play but couldn't convert. Wilson made a diving save on a header shot by John Remsberg in the 86th minute and added another save on a Remsberg header in the 88th minute. The saves were Wilson's first two of the game. Eastern took the only shot of the first overtime period and the game marched on knotted up into the second overtime.
In the start of the 104th minute, King's scored the decisive goal. Nygren chipped a pass across the box from the left side to Brian Fenster to headed the pass to Hernandez on a left post. Hernandez played it with his head and pushed in the game-winner.
The Eagles fell short of the 2014 NCAA Tournament marking the end of the road for seniors Nick Policastro, Eric Giovagnoli, Ben Barnhart and Jair Saenz. Since 2011, the Eagles have made the conference post season three times, the championship game twice and have gone 50-19-3 overall.
Box Score
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