The Amherst College men’s soccer team’s season came to an end Saturday as it fell, 2-1, to Rochester in the third round of the NCAA Tournament in Grantham, Pennsylvania.
Amherst led 1-0 in the 71st minute, when the Warriors tied the game. Midfielder Alex Di Perna took a shot on goal that was stopped, but the deflection came off to midfielder Geoffrey Rouin, who buried it in the back of the net.
In the 74th minute, Rouin beat Amherst goalkeeper Michael Stone to give Rochester a one-goal lead. The goal was assisted by forward Stefan Sarkovich and midfielder Bryce Ikedia.
“They had a good amount of possession,” Amherst coach Justin Serpone said. “They took the most of the two chances. That’s soccer. You can’t switch off for a second, never mind a minute or three minutes. That was the difference.”
The lone Amherst goal came in the 20th minute off a header on a corner kick, as defender Cutler Coleman found fellow defensemen Kyle Kelly, who scored his third goal of the season.
“Kyle (Kelly) scored a great goal,” Serpone said. “It certainly gave us some good momentum. We thought we’d be able to get out of there with a 1-0 win but Rochester did a great job of continuing to apply the pressure and they finally broke through.”
The second half of the game was chippy, with five yellow cards. The Mammoths received the first two, followed by three for the Warriors.
Amherst was outshot 16-11, with Rochester getting off nine shots in the second half. Stone made eight saves for Amherst, including five in the final 45 minutes.
Goalkeeper Redd Brown made five saves for the Warriors.
Two years after winning the national championship, the Mammoths did not expect to make a run this deep in the tournament, as they graduated the majority of the championship team the past two years.
Still, a run to the Sweet 16 is something that Serpone feels the team can build off of.
“It was certainly a unique situation for our program,” Serpone said. “We graduated two really big classes the last two years after winning the national championship. I think there was a little learning that needed to be done this year that was done. I’m really proud of the leadership and the effort of all of our guys to get to the third round. Really a heck of a year.”