ATLANTA—On Friday evening, the Oglethorpe men's soccer program's incredible season ended after a 3-2 loss to No. 16 Colorado College in the 2023 NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championship round of 64.
Oglethorpe scored the opening goal in the 42nd minute on a great set-piece play as Ben Alram delivered a great cross to Aaron Ibe who chested the ball into the back of the net. It was Ibe's third goal of the season and Alram's 10th assist of the season. The Stormy Petrels added on to their lead in the 55th minute on another play with a great cross from Dylan Bapst. Bapst played his cross across the box to Alram who had great vision to make a pass to Nicolas Sciarra as he buried the ball into the back of the net. It was Sciarra's third goal of the season and Alram's 11th assist of the season.
Just four minutes after the second goal from head coach Jon Akin's side, Alexander Ward of Colorado College scored from the penalty spot to put the Tigers back into the match. Seven minutes after that, Oliver Ramirez scored a second goal for Colorado to tie the game 2-2. This meant that the men in black and gold had to find a goal that would give them back the lead and send them to the next round of the NCAA Championship. However, Will Bavier's winning goal in the 84th minute ended Oglethorpe's hopes of advancing to the next round.
Although the men's soccer program was not able to get their hands on a third trophy, that does not take away the remarkable season that the players and coaching staff had. Oglethorpe added two trophies to their cabinet: the 2023 SAA regular season title and the SAA postseason title. Akin has led his program to 11 conference titles, with seven in the regular season and four in the postseason. This marked Oglethorpe's fourth trip to the NCAA tournament under Akin.
The team also collected several prominent awards this season. Alram earned the SAA offensive player of the year. Akin was named the SAA coach of the year. JR Cozine, Daniel Amah and Alram were SAA all-tournament team selections. Adrian Levy, Cozine, Alram and Amah were All-SAA first team honorees. Luke Ferrari, Jake Locklear, and Cristian Medina were selected as All-SAA second team honorees. Bapst, Javier Martinez, Carlos Cavallaro, Nicolas Mejia and Sciarra were recognized as All-SAA honorable mentions. The team set two new impressive shutout records with 12 individual shutouts for Nicolas Mejia and 12 team shutouts.
Match Facts
- Oglethorpe ended their 2023 season with a 14-3-2 record.
- This was the first time that Oglethorpe participated in the NCAA tournament since 2019.
- The team played against Colorado College for the first time since 2012 when Oglethorpe had a 2-1 road victory at Colorado.
- Oglethorpe was outshot 22-19 on shots by Colorado College but outshot the Tigers 13-10 on shots on target.
