Rockville Centre, N.Y. – Powered by a penalty kick save from freshman Simon Steffensen (Aalborg, Denmark/Aalborghus Gymnasium) and the clinching penalty kick from senior David Breitenbach (Mannheim, Germany/Barton College), the No. 3 seeded Mercy College men's soccer team and the No. 1 seeded Molloy University played to a 1-1 draw with the Mavericks winning in penalty kicks, 5-3, in the ECC Men's Soccer Championship Final on Sunday afternoon at John A. Darcy Field.
Senior Vasco Baptista (Alges, Portugal/Escola Secudaria Miraflores) was named the Championship's Most Outstanding Player.
The Mavericks (12-2-5) win their fifth ECC Championship and first since 2019. Both Mercy College men's and women's soccer teams win the ECC Championship in the same season for the first time ever. Mercy secures the ECC's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament and will await their seed tomorrow night. The Lions (8-4-8) fail to win their second straight ECC Championship and will now await a possible NCAA berth.
Freshmen Mateo Bacigalupo (Buenos Aires, Argentina/Colegio Cardenal Newman) and Mathias Schilbred-Eriksen (Bergen, Norway/Tertnes Videregaende Skole) both had a team-high two shots on goal and sophomore Eirik Elvestad (Oslo, Norway/Blindern VGS) made seven saves.
Molloy was led by Ryan Dobson who scored and by Nick Conklu who made nine saves.
The Lions jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the 6th minute when Dobson headed in a Jonas Jacobsen corner kick. The score remained 1-0 heading into halftime.
The score stayed 1-0 into the 68th minute when Bacigalupo drew a foul in the box. Martin Penafiel's (Santiago, Chile/Colegio Verbo Divino) penalty kick was stopped by Conklu to keep Molloy ahead 1-0. Elvestad made two more saves to keep the score 1-0. The Mavericks tied their ECC Semifinal against Queens with just over a minute left in regulation and Mercy found the magic again in the 89th minute when a Carlos Fernandes (Lisbon, Portugal/Spring Hill College) cross was headed in by a Molloy defender for an own goal to tie the game with just 1:20 left to play. Both goalkeepers made a save in the final minute of play to send the game into overtime tied at 1-1.
Conklu stopped the lone two shots on goal in the first overtime to keep the score tied at 1-1 after one overtime period.
Both goalkeepers made an additional save in the second overtime and the game stayed tied at 1-1, sending the game into penalty kicks.
Sophomore Luis Silva (Esposende, Portugal/Knox College) started with a goal and Molloy answered with a goal to make it 1-1. Baptista made it 2-1 and Nicolay Kutzop tied it again at 2-2. Senior Benjamin Van Buren (Anderson, S.C./USC Upstate) gave the Mavericks a 3-2 lead before Dobson evened the score at 3-3. Penafiel earned redemption from his miss in regulation with a make to put the Mavericks up 4-3. Steffensen then stepped up after coming in off the bench for the penalty kicks, stopping a J.P. Rodriguez attempt to keep Mercy ahead. Breitenbach then delivered a make to give the Mercy the 5-3 win in penalty kicks and their fifth ECC Championship.
Mercy held a 23-14 edge in shots and a 10-8 edge in shots on goal. Mercy held an 11-5 edge in corner kicks.
Provided by the Mercy Sports Information Department.
