It took 110 minutes and 15 rounds of penalty kicks, but Ohio State came out on top in the earliest and perhaps most-anticipated game of the first round of the NCAA tournament after drawing 1-1 at home against Akron.
The Buckeyes were forced to overcome a 31st-minute penalty kick goal by Akron midfielder Adam Najem, snatching an equalizer in the 67th via Columbus Crew academy product – and former Zip – Kyle Culbertson. Goalkeeper Alex Ivanov made three saves in the penalty shootout before Zach Mason, another Crew academy product, buried the deciding kick to send the Buckeyes through. OSU will face No. 1 seed and reigning national champion Notre Dame in the next round.
While that match had its moments, the most dramatic result of the night may have been San Diego’s
come-from-behind 2-1 win over Cal State Fullerton
. After falling behind in the 13th minute, San Diego took advantage of a penalty call in the 89th that redshirt junior Keegan Smith put away to send the match to overtime. In the 102nd minute, Smith was ejected after picking up a second yellow card, but less than a minute later the Toreros rendered the advantage moot after Fullerton was called for a second penalty kick and senior striker Dave Musambi stepped up to put away the golden goal and send USD to the next round.
Two other results on the night were decided in shootouts. UMBC played to a 0-0 draw at Wake Forest before
advancing 3-2 on kicks
, while
UAB fell at home to Furman
4-3 on penalties after drawing the Paladins 1-1. Furman will now have to travel face Washington in the next round, while the Terriers will take the short but tough trip to face No. 4 seed Maryland.
The first-round favorites mostly made short work of their opponents. North Carolina
routed James Madison 6-0
behind a hat trick from senior forward Andy Craven (pictured right), and Old Dominion and UC Irvine each won their contests 3-0 against St. Francis (Brooklyn) and UNLV, respectively. Though hard pressed at times by Tulsa, Saint Louis eventually emerged on top at home by
beating the Golden Hurricane 2-0
.
The biggest upset of the evening may have come in Kentucky’s 2-0 loss to Oakland, ending a dream season for the Wildcats that included wins over Notre Dame, Xavier and New Mexico. Northwestern, meanwhile, suffered a 1-0 defeat to intrastate rival SIU-Edwardsville. Oakland will face regional rival Michigan State in the next round, while SIUE will hit the road to face Cal.
Like OSU, Penn State was also forced to come back from a deficit after conceding the opener just out of halftime, but were eventually able to handle Hartwick at home after goals by Mikey Minutillo at the hour mark and Brett Gravatt in the 74th minute.
NCAA TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND SCORES
Ohio State 1, Akron 1 (OSU advances 13-12 in PKs)
Dartmouth 2, Fordham 1
Northwestern 0 , SIU-Edwardsville 1
Coastal Carolina 1, Florida Culf-Coast 0
UAB 1, Furman 1 (Furman advances 4-3 in PKs)
UNC Wilmington 2, Bucknell 0
Penn State 2, Hartwick 1
Old Dominion 3, St. Francis (Brooklyn) 0
Kentucky 0, Oakland 2
Xavier 2, Monmouth 1
Wake Forest 0, UMBC 0 (UMBC advances 3-2 in PKs)
North Carolina 6, James Madison 0
Oregon State 1, Denver 0
Saint Lous 2, Tulsa 0
UC Irvine 3, UNLV 0
San Diego 2, CSU Fullerton 1
