BALTIMORE – The Colgate men's soccer team earned a 1-0 win over Holy Cross to claim its second-straight Patriot League Championship and the league's automatic berth into the NCAA tournament Sunday afternoon at Loyola's Ridley Athletic Complex.
The Raiders capture their seventh Patriot League Championship in program history and Colgate becomes the first team to claim back-to-back titles since Bucknell did so in 2009-10. Colgate is the first six-seed to ever win the Patriot League Tournament. The win secured the Raiders 10th victory of the season and Colgate has now secured three-straight 10-plus win seasons for the first time in program history.
Junior
Oliver Harris scored the game-winning goal in the 67th minute to lift the Raiders to victory. Harris, juniors
Steven DeLeo and
Aram Ouligian, and senior
Jared Stroud were named to the Patriot League All-Tournament Team. Stroud was crowned MVP of the tournament for his efforts in Colgate's title run.
The Raiders threatened right out of the gate as Colgate was awarded a corner kick 30 seconds into the game, but the Crusader defense was able to clear the ball out of harm's way. Colgate peppered Holy Cross with three shots in a four-minute span from the 14th to the 18th minutes, including a shot from Stroud that ricocheted off the post, but none were able to find the back of the net.
The Crusaders rattled off three shots and two corner kicks in the final six minutes of the opening term, but sophomore keeper
Jacob Harris and the Raider defense stood tough to keep the game scoreless heading into halftime.
Both teams generated good opportunities in the opening 20 minutes of the second half, but it wasn't until the 67th minute that the scoreless draw was broken. A Stroud corner kick bounced around in the box before
Oliver Harris collected it and sent a left-footed blast into the left-hand corner of the net to give the Raiders a 1-0 lead.
The Crusaders brought pressure in the final 20 minutes, but the Colgate defense and Harris stepped up. Harris made a key save on a shot from Mason Brummett in the 77th minute to keep Colgate's 1-0 lead in tact. The defense took care of the rest, as the final buzzer rang and Colgate secured its seventh Patriot League title in program history.
BOTTOM LINE
WON-LOST RECORDS
- The Raiders improve to 10-10-1 on the season.
- Holy Cross wraps up its season at 8-9-3 overall.
KEY RAIDER INFO
- Colgate is now a perfect 7-for-7 when playing in the championship game.
- The Raiders are now tied for most championships in Patriot League men's soccer history. Colgate and Lafayette have both claimed seven league titles. The next closest team, Bucknell, has four league titles.
- The Raiders started the season 5-10-1 and have now won their last five games.
- Oliver Harris' goal was his third of the season.
- Jacob Harris made three saves to secure his fourth shutout of the season and moves to 6-1-0.
FACTS & FIGURES
- Holy Cross finished the game with a 10-7 shot edge and 4-2 corner kick advantage.
- Jacob Harris made three saves in goal compared to Stutz' one save.
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach
Erik Ronning
- "First of all, I'd like to congratulate Holy Cross on a great season. It was a really tightly-contested game and it was one of those games that was decided by one play. We were fortunate enough to make that play."
- "I'm so proud of these guys. They've shown incredible resiliency and have battled all season long. They kept on believing and kept on working when all the chips were against us to this point. I'm so proud of them and they deserve all of the credit for their belief, perseverance, performance and execution."
- "They're high-character young men who are great students, great players, great people and the total package. They earned this."
- "I know the guys have something else on their mind too and want to take that next step. We'll see where we're selected for the NCAA Tournament and begin preparations for that. This team doesn't want to stop here. They want to keep going and I know they'll be a tough team to face in the first round of the NCAA Tournament."
UP NEXT
- The Raiders will make their second-straight and seventh overall NCAA tournament appearance.
- Colgate finds out its first round opponent Monday at 1 p.m. when the selection show airs live on NCAA.com.
- The first round of the NCAA Tournament takes place Thursday. The winning teams from the 16 first-round games advance to Sunday's second-round action.
