Seton Hall men’s soccer received an at-large bid to the 2022 NCAA Tournament after their loss in the Big East tournament to Creighton. The Pirates have made two of the last three NCAA tournaments for the first time since 2001-2005, where they made it five years straight. This marked their 13th appearance in the tournament all-time.
They traveled to Durham, New Hampshire to take on the University of New Hampshire Wildcats for their first-round matchup.
The Pirates found themselves trailing early in the game, as New Hampshire fired right out of the locker room. New Hampshire’s Eli Goldman scored in the third minute on his first attempt of the game to put the Wildcats up 1-0. Shortly after, Bilal Kamal tacked on a second goal at the 8:27 mark thanks to an assist from Chris Pinkham and the Wildcats held a 2-0 advantage early.
Johannes Pex had to create offense after the early deficit and found a striding Konstantin Donalies off a corner kick for Donalies’ first career goal in the 12th minute. The deficit was cut to just one goal, but offense slowed shortly after. Goldman attempted to extend New Hampshire’s lead in the 15th minute, though the shot couldn’t find the back of the net.
In the second half, James Boote looked to tie the match at 2, though Wildcat goalie Jassem Koleilat knocked it away. Five Pirate yellow cards throughout the match led to the team’s demise on the pitch Thursday night.
After a successful season and return to both the Big East and NCAA Tournaments, the men’s soccer team’s season ended as New Hampshire walked away with a 2-1 victory in the first round. They culminated a 7-4-7 record overall, going 4-1-5 in conference play.
Donalies and fellow freshman Liam Guske started all 17 games in their freshman campaign, while Dahn played all 90 minutes for the 47th time in his 50-game career.
Thomas Donnelly can be reached at thomas.donnelly@student.shu.edu. Find him on Twitter @_tommyd023.
