Senators fall to NDC in PKs
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ELKINS -- Third-seed Notre Dame (Ohio) College used a furious rally in regulation en route to knocking off second-seed Davis & Elkins College in penalty kicks Thursday in Mountain East Conference semifinal play at Nuttall Field.
The Senators (15-2-1) seemed to be in complete control, leading 2-0 with just under 6 minutes left in regulation play.
But the Falcons struck for two goals to force a pair of 10-minute overtime sessions before prevailing in the shootout, 3-2.
Notre Dame, which dealt D&E one of its two regular-season losses on the season, cut the margin to 2-1 when Marcus Vincius Pereira converted a penalty kick in the 84th minute.
The Falcons got even with 2:08 left to play when Antonio Bittencourt scored off an assist from Eden Ben Hagay.
David Materazzi and Manuel Castrejon were good on their PK opportunities for the Senators, while Pereira, Taylor Dyson and Ned Dry accounted for Notre Dame's scores.
The physically played match, which had a total of 47 fouls whistled and each team receiving a yellow card, was scoreless at halftime.
D&E dented the scoreboard in the 46th minutes when Martin Lago provided the assist on a goal by Dominique Castano.
The Senators doubled the lead in the 53rd minute on Daniel Cerezo's 10th goal of the season, with Beltran Fernandez providing the helper.
D&E held a 16-5 advantage on shots and 7-4 edge on shots on goal.
The Senators attempted five corner kicks compared to three by the visitors.
Notre Dame (15-3-2) will travel to top-seed the University of Charleston on Sunday in the title game.
The Golden Eagles advanced with a 3-0 win over fourth-seed Wheeling in Thursday night's other semifinal.
Eduardo Iranzo, Santiago Hoyos and Sam Bethell tallied goals for Charleston, which entered the MEC tourney ranked sixth in the nation, while D&E was 12th and Notre Dame 21st.
D&E now awaits its NCAA Division II tourney fate. The Senators were fifth in the latest Super Region 1 rankings. UC was second and NDC seventh.
The top 10 teams from the four super regions qualify for the NCAA tournament.