Rindge, N.H.- The Golden Eagles battle in a nail biter with MEC conference rival to advance to the elite eight.
 
The Basics
Location: Sodexo Field
Score: UC 0 D&E 0, Charleston would go to win penalty shootout
Records: Charleston 18-1-2 (14-1-1 MEC), D&E 18-1-3 (13-0-2 MEC)
 
How it Happened
The cold, rainy Thursday afternoon start in Rindge, New Hampshire was nothing short of a nail biter with 110 scoreless minutes of soccer. The game being the fourth time the Golden Eagles and Senators would face off in the 2021 season would send one team on to the Elite Eight and the other team on a flight back to West Virginia.
 
The Golden Eagles would start off the first half with two quick corner kicks in the first four minutes, but nothing would come from the set pieces. Just a few moments later in the eighth minute the Senators had a shot on goal, but Charleston's Marc Torrado would go on to save it.
 
Both teams would go on to have a few shots and corners for the remainder of the half but neither team could find the back of the net.
 
The second half looked very similar to the first with both teams having possessions but once again, neither team could muster up a goal. The scoreless 90 minutes would send the match into its first overtime.
 
In the first 10-minute overtime the Golden Eagles had two opportunities down the field, one resulted in a yellow card for Gabriel Rodriguez. The other was a last-minute attempt that went right of the goal and would send both teams to the second overtime.
 
The second overtime was another scoreless ten minutes that eventually sent both teams to a penalty shootout.
 
The Golden Eagles coaching staff made the decision to send senior Ian De Oliveira Martins in between the post instead of starter Marc Torrado.
 
The first Senator attempt from Estrada-Avila hit the crossbar and left the Golden Eagles in the driver seat for the first round of penalties. Gabriel Rodriguez did not disappoint as he found the back of the net to give the Golden Eagles the advantage going into the second round of penalties.
 
The next Senator to shoot was Gianluca Fiorini who missed wide left although Martins had guessed correctly. Charleston's Adrian Camacho then went top-right corner to make it 2-0.
 
Martins went on to correctly guess again, this time diving to his left to save the shootout attempt of Soshi Fujioka. The Golden Eagles put the game in the hands of Luis Maestre who went on to score the last needed goal for Charleston.
 
With the penalty kick victory, the Golden Eagles survived to advance to the national quarterfinal.
 
 
Up Next
The Golden Eagles will take on Millersville University, Saturday December 4^th with a 1pm kickoff. Winner advances to the NCAA Final Four in Colorado next week.