Gators Use PKs to Slip Past Transylvania, Advance in NCAAs

Nov 10, 2004

Boxscore

LEXINGTON, Ky. – For the second consecutive game, Allegheny College senior forward Marc Sciulli (Pittsburgh, Pa./ Central Catholic) buried the winning penalty kick, as the Gators edged host Transylvania (Ky.) University in PKs 4-3 to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The match was forced to PKs after neither team was able to put a score on the board after 110 minutes of action.

In their first trip ever to NCAAs, Allegheny (11-7-2) now moves on to face Carnegie Mellon University (11-1-3) on Saturday, November 13. The site of the match is still to be determined and will be announced tomorrow.

The host Pioneers (15-2-3) nearly got on the board in the opening five minutes, as they had two good crosses that AC junior keeper Brian Manougian (Rye, N.H./ Portsmouth) had to punch out of the box. After that, Allegheny settled down and controlled a good bit of the action. The Gators had a pair of opportunities go by the boards late in the half when senior forward Jason Figura (Pittsburgh, Pa./ North Hills) headed a ball just over the crossbar and senior forward Josh Johnson (Murrysville, Pa./ Franklin Regional) gathered in a loose ball after the Pioneer keeper tried to punch out a cross and fired a shot that hit a Transylvania defender.

Allegheny had perhaps the best chance to win in regulation, as with 17 minutes left, sophomore forward Mark Dobish (New Wilmington, Pa./ New Wilmington) took a feed to the right of the box and pushed a shot just wide of the lower left post. Once the game went to overtime, Transylvania dominated the first extra session, taking two shots that went wide, but they could not score the winner and the match carried on to PKs.

Allegheny seemed to have a slight edge going to penalty kicks, as the Gators bested Denison (Ohio) University 5-3 in them on Saturday to win the NCAC title. It was the Pioneers first match in PKs this season and it showed early as Albert Gross hit the right bar on the first kick and Jon Kincheloe saw his shot deflect off the left bar. The Gators had freshman Eric Sloan (Pittsburgh, Pa./ Mt. Lebanon) and Figura bury their shots to put AC ahead 2-0 with three kicks to go.

The Gator lead was cut to 2-1 when Transy’s Matt Karaffa converted his kick and Johnson had his stopped. But that was the last miss of the day for Allegheny, as freshman Jeremy Garbutt (St. Louis, Mo./ John Burroughs) knocked his home and then Sciulli delivered his shot to the left side of the net to send the Gators to the second round.

Good shots were hard to come by in this one, as Transylvania held a 7-5 advantage in shots. The Pioneers were also whistled for 21 fouls, compared to 14 for the Gators.

Manougian continued to be outstanding for Allegheny in net, as he stopped four shots to record his fifth consecutive shutout for Allegheny. Transylvania’s Mark Frank made four saves as well before he was relieved in the PKs by Nick Karaffa.

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