SALEM, Va. – The No. 11-ranked St. Olaf College men's soccer team won its first NCAA Division III national title with a 2-1 come-from-behind overtime victory over No. 13-ranked Amherst College on Sunday afternoon at Kerr Stadium.
Competing in its first national championship game, St. Olaf (20-3-3) fell behind 1-0 early in the second half when Amherst (16-3-4) struck first on a goal by Luka Ohadike, but the Oles fought back to tie the game in the 62nd minute through senior
Hakeem Morgan. The teams went to overtime tied at 1-1 before senior
Casey McCloskey scored his third goal of the weekend just 1:08 into the first overtime for the game-winning goal.
The win was St. Olaf's program-record 20th of the season – breaking a tie with the 2021 team – and extended the program's record-long unbeaten streak to 22 games (19-0-3). The national title was the first by a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) institution in men's soccer and made St. Olaf the western-most program to win the national title in men's soccer since Trinity University (Texas) in 2003, as well as the third-straight first-time champion.
After a scoreless opening half, the Mammoths, who were playing in their third national championship game in four seasons and won the 2015 national title, struck first when Luka Ohadike scored on a deflected shot after collecting a long ball forward and cutting past a pair of St. Olaf defenders.
The Oles responded a little over 13 minutes later when Morgan, who suffered a significant injury to his ankle in the semifinals, tucked the ball into the top-right corner from a sharp angle on the left side of the box after being played in by McCloskey. The goal was Morgan's 10th of the season but just his second in the last 15 games.
Neither team was able to break the tie over the final 28-plus minutes of regulation, but it did not take St. Olaf long to go ahead in the first overtime. After a giveaway in the midfield by Amherst, senior
Jordan Oberholtzer got the ball to junior
Shea Bechtel, who drove forward with the ball before slotting the ball to McCloskey on the right. McCloskey, who scored twice in the semifinal-win over Washington College (Md.), fired the ball across goal into the lower-left corner for the decisive goal.
The national championship was St. Olaf's second NCAA team title in school history, joining the 2013 men's cross country team. Prior to this weekend, the only other time the Oles had advanced to the national semifinals in a bracket-style NCAA championship event was the women's volleyball team that finished third in 1996.
After the game, McCloskey was honored as the Tournament's Most Outstanding Offensive Player, while junior goalkeeper
Peter Forseth was picked as the Most Outstanding Defensive Player. The duo were joined on the All-Tournament Team by Morgan and fellow senior
Victor Gaulmin.
Both teams had chances to open the scoring in the first 10 minutes, as Forseth got down to stop Simon Kalinauskas' shot from outside the box in the fifth minute. Less than three minutes later, sophomore
Ben Beckman carried the ball forward and slipped in senior
Clemente Arcuch Puig, but Max Landa rushed off his line to deny Arcuch Puig, and the Amherst defense scrambled the ball away.
Amherst was inches from opening the scoring in the 25th minute when Kalinauskas hit the left post on a back-post header off a cross from the right. The Oles and Mammoths eventually went into the halftime break scoreless after each team had six shots in the opening 45 minutes.
It did not take Amherst long to open the scoring in the second half, however, as Ohadike benefited from a ricochet off two St. Olaf defenders to spring free on the left side before sliding a slightly-deflected effort past Forseth just 3:06 into the second half. The Oles responded 15 minutes later when Landa got a touch on Morgan's sharp-angle shot from the left side of the box but could not keep it from going in off the inside of the far post to tie the game.
With seven minutes remaining in regulation, Forseth was called into action on a shot from the top of the box by Ben Clark-Eden, but the junior beat it away with his fists to keep the game level and help push the game to overtime. After McCloskey's goal, the Mammoths spurned a golden opportunity to tie the game just a minute and a half later, as Ada Okorogeye centered the ball to Fynn Hayton-Ruffner, who shot lifted the ball over the net from near the penalty spot with Forseth out of position.
Neither team generated a shot on goal in the second overtime period, as St. Olaf held on to claim the national title. McCloskey had the best chance of the second 10-minute period four minutes in but curled a left-footed shot wide of the right post from the same spot Hayton-Ruffner missed the net from in the first period. Senior
Jordan Oberholtzer set up McCloskey's chance by dribbling up most of the length of the field before picking out McCloskey in the middle.
Amherst held a 20-13 advantage in shots in the game, but St. Olaf had five of the game's nine shots on goal. With a significant height advantage, the Mammoths earned 10 corner nicks in the game, compared to four for the Oles, but could not convert on any of them. Forseth made three saves in the win for St. Olaf, while Landa had three stops in the first 94:51 for Amherst before leaving due to injury for Juan Perez.
