By Derek Brightwell–
The University of Maryland Baltimore County Retrievers ended the Louisville Cardinals’ season Sunday night with a 1-0 victory at Mark and Cindy Lynn Stadium. UMBC advances to the Elite 8 in the NCAA Men’s Soccer Tournament.
After a questionable handball in the box gave the Retrievers a penalty kick at the start of the 24th minute, senior captain Mamadou Kansaye went left to beat keeper Joachim Ball for what would become the game winner.
“I didn’t see it, maybe it was maybe it wasn’t, but that was the difference in the game,” head coach Ken Lolla said of the penalty.
Louisville got off to a slow start, managing only four shots in the first half, only one of which, a header by Andrew Brody, was on goal.
“I thought it was starting the game a little bit tight, maybe nervous,” Lolla said. “Maybe it was the moment, but we just weren’t at our best in the first half. I just don’t think we were sharp in the first half.
“I felt like we wasted 45 minutes,” he added. “We didn’t put into it what we did in the second half, and 45 minutes of effort wasn’t quite good enough tonight.”
“We ended the game well, but regretted the way we played in the first half,” senior captain Daniel Keller added. “It left a really sour taste in our mouths. Especially my mouth because it was my last game as a Cardinal and I really wanted to bring a Championship here.”
Towards the end of the first half, and throughout the second, the Cards looked to be the superior team, holding a nine to four shot advantage in the second half; but despite all of the chances, Louisville couldn’t put one in the net.
“Up until the final whistle, we were constantly saying where’s the next one is coming from,” Lolla said of the second half attack. “I thought we did a lot of things right in the second half. We created some great chances. It was one of those nights where it didn’t fall for us.”
The first quality look at the net of the second came in the 61st when Shane Campbell’s header from a Tim Kubel free kick landed on top of the net. Minutes later, senior Will Vitalis got loose in the box, but just as he went to shoot, UMBC keeper Billy Heavner came out to collect the ball. Vitalis was again on the attack in the 72nd minute when his shot from the left hand side of the box missed left of the net by about a foot.
“In the second half, we said it at half time, they were going to send everything they could at us,” UMBC coach Pete Caringi, Jr. said of the attack for Louisville. “One of our strengths is our back four and we knew we were going to withstand a lot of pressure, but maybe not as much as we did.”
Junior Ricardo Velazco continued the offensive onslaught with a shot just two minutes later that was almost identical to Vitalis’, missing just right. Brody got a header in a good position after a great cross from Ivan Gutierrez but Heavner continued his great game with another save. Kubel got another chance at the net, missing left, as the Cards frantically tried to get the equalizer.
“I think we believed that we had a chance to get it right down to the end. We were still pressing it, still getting chances,” Lolla said. “I give them a lot of credit because they never stopped.”
UMBC has come from seemingly nowhere to beat Wake Forest, Maryland and now Louisville, all on the road.
“Obviously we knew it was going to be another tough battle,” Caringi said of the team’s first three match-ups. “The road to get here had not been easy, but we have a very confident group, a veteran team. We kind of feed into the fact that a lot of people don’t know who we are.”
“No,” Kansaye said when asked if the team feels like Cinderella. “I think our team is special in the sense that we play like champions every day. So to call it a Cinderella story, I don’t really buy into that.”
“I think this is a team of destiny,” Caringi added.
The shutout loss ends Louisville’s season at an 11-8-3 record and improves the Retrievers to 14-5-4 as they will go to Creighton for the quarterfinals.
Photos by Austin Lassell / The Louisville Cardinal
