No. 12 Mustangs Show Grit To Reach Sweet 16
Nov 26 | Men's Soccer
DALLAS (SMU) - The SMU men's soccer team scored late in each half to defeat Washington 2-1 on Sunday night at Washburne Stadium and advance to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Championships.
The 12th-seeded Mustangs scored with under six minutes left in the first half to tie the game and then Owen Zarnick scored the game-winner with just 67 seconds remaining in regulation to claim the victory.
"To score two goals late in the half like that to come back is a wonderful trait that says a lot about the maturity and belief in the team," SMU head coach Kevin Hudson said. "... I've got some mature, experienced guys who know what it takes to win. And yeah, we're happy to keep playing."
Things didn't come easy for the Mustangs throughout the night. Washington took the 1-0 lead in the 30th minute. But SMU was able to find a way.
Part of that came from its substitutes. Stephan Soghomonian, Ryan Clanton-Pimentel, Milton Lopez and Lamar Bynum came on in the 37th minute. Less than three minutes later, Soghomonian found the back of the net.
"We made a couple late changes that helped," Hudson said. "Ryan's energy was impactful and then Milton did a very good job both times we brought him on late in the half. And Steph, yeah, coming in and doing what he did (Sunday) says a lot about his confidence and composure and belief in himself."
The goal was simple enough for the freshman.
"Won the ball at the top of the box," said Soghomonian." Top of the box, you have to shoot. Shot it, scored."
It wasn't just scoring the equalizer. It was scoring the equalizer before halftime. Going into the break in a 1-1 tie was a much different situation than going into halftime down a goal and having to make changes in order to try and find that tying goal.
"It's huge," Zarnick said of the tying goal. "We were talking about, after their goal, I think we kept our head on, kept moving, kept playing the ball. Steph scored, it was a big, big boost for us before half. I think the goal before half was pretty critical for us."
Meanwhile, it was Zarnick netting the game-winner to send SMU into the next round. His third goal of the season was his biggest this season. Although his first two goals were big, coming in back-to-back games to help secure a 2-0 win against No. 13 Virginia Tech and then pulling even for a 1-1 draw against FIU in late September.
"That's definitely moment-wise, my favorite goal I've ever scored," Zarnick said. "Ball got put in, honestly I couldn't even tell you if it was a corner or how it set up, I really can't remember. I just remember kind of pulling out my run a little bit, Lamar got in a good spot, ball bounced out, just sat down and laid it off for me and I hit it. So, yeah, it's pretty, pretty awesome."
Zarnick didn't have the cleanest game leading up to the goal. But he's started all 19 games this season and is the team leader in minutes played. Hudson and his staff kept faith in the junior defender.
"Owen will be the first to admit, he had a couple moments in the second half which were a little dicey," Hudson said. "I looked at our assistant coaches when I said, 'O right now, he gave a bad one away trying to change sides.' He's like, 'You don't say anything to O. You've got to trust him, and you got to let him go.' He's got three years of experience here and he's a good player and you just trust him to let him go. He's big, he's good in the air, hungry to score."
Now the Mustangs will travel to fifth-seeded Dayton for the third round on Saturday at 6 p.m. CST.
Hudson has seen Dayton, but noted one stat that stands out;Â the Flyers have 53 goals in 19 games, second in the NCAA behind Duke. But 14 of Duke's 59 goals came against Division III Averett.
"It's a good team. They're going to ask some interesting questions of us," Hudson said. "Hopefully the assistants and I will have time to analyze them and break it down and put forth the best plan we can and try to deal with them and hopefully be sharper than we were (Sunday)."
But playing this time of year, no matter where or who the game is against, is special.
"You just want to be together. You just want to train, you just want to spend time with the guys," Hudson said. "You want to be able to just goof around and try to get better and continue with this process of what this team can be. My favorite training session of the year is Thanksgiving morning. If you get to play and train on Thanksgiving morning, it is awesome."
