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HANOVER, Ind. -- Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology advanced to the NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Tournament for the third consecutive year with a penalty kick victory at Hanover College in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament championship game on Saturday.
Rose-Hulman will learn its NCAA Division III Tournament first round opponent and site on Monday at 1:30 p.m. in a national selection show produced by NCAA.com.
Rose-Hulman and Hanover battled to a scoreless draw for 110 minutes, forcing the match outcome to hinge on five penalty kicks. After five kicks, the score was tied at 3-3.
Sophomore Carter Wright defended Hanover's sixth penalty kick round shot, opening the door for Rose-Hulman to win the game with one successful boot. Sophomore Davis Ferriell found the back of the net on the penalty kick, giving the Engineers a 4-3 victory in the tiebreaker to move Rose-Hulman to the NCAA Tournament.
The match was an even battle in any statistical measure. Hanover outshot Rose-Hulman 13-12, with Wright and Hanover goalkeeper Rafael DiMaio recording five saves each. The penalty kicks started slowly, with a 1-1 score after three rounds on makes by Hanover's Thomas Doering and Rose-Hulman's Austin Webb.
The penalty kick shooters turned up the heat, with each team making two in a row to knot the tiebreaker at 3-3 and force sudden death. Matthew Hand and Enrico Franchini scored for Hanover, only to be matched by Turner Perkins and Dieter Schultz of Rose-Hulman to set the stage for the deciding kicks.
Schultz led the Rose-Hulman offense with four shots, and Perkins added three shots. Hand and Will Bridgeman recorded five shots each to pace Hanover.
Rose-Hulman advances to the NCAA Division III Tournament with a record of 13-2-5. Hanover completes a season that featured its first HCAC regular season men's soccer championship, shared with the Fightin' Engineers, and a mark of 12-6-3.
