CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – 110 minutes were not enough to decide a winner in the NEWMAC Men's Soccer Championship First Round as the fourth-seeded MIT men's soccer team and fifth-seeded Springfield needed penalty kicks to decide who would advance to Thursday's semifinals. It was the Pride who came away with a 9-8 edge in PKs to advance to play top-seed Babson at 1:30 PM.
 
THE BASICS

• Score: MIT 2, Springfield 2 (Springfield 9-8 PKs)
• Records: MIT (8-8-3 Overall), Springfield (6-8-4 Overall)

HOW IT HAPPENED: 

• First year Shikhar Motupally (Avon, Conn.) gave the Engineers a lead in the 7th minute as he got around his defender on the far side and laced a shot into the far corner of the goal.
• Junior Kaleb Asfaw (San Jose, Calif.) sent a header to the front of the goal that hit off a Springfield defender and went right to senior Jack Minor (Boca Raton, Fla.) who flicked a shot into the back of goal at 25:43.
• The Pride cut the MIT lead to one when sophomore Connor Policarpio (Bristol, Conn.) sent a pass to the front of the goal where senior Brandon Trent (Commack, N.Y.) was able to get his head on it and deflect it into the net at 28:12.
• Springfield pulled even 10 minutes into the second half when first year Morgan Thibodeau (Carrabassett Valley, Maine) collected a deflection in front and put the ball into the left corner of the goal.
• Policarpio had a chance to win the match in regulation for the Pride, but Paolo Mangiafico (Farmington, Conn.) made the save and the teams went into overtime.
• Yet again Policarpio looked to give Springfield the win, but Mangiafico made a game-saving stop in the 99th minute.
• Neither team put together scoring opportunities in the second overtime and the game would be decided by penalty kicks.
• The Pride missed their second attempt while MIT converted on its first four attempts. MIT missed on its fifth attempt, and the teams went on to exchange makes before the Engineers missed on their 10th chance to give Springfield a chance to win the match. Senior Ian Belles (Brookfield, Conn.) stepped up and found the back of the net to give the visitors the win. 

INSIDE THE NUMBERS: 

• Motupally scored his team-leading ninth goal of the year while Minor registered his fourth.
• Trent scored his second of the season while Thibodeau scored his third.
• Shots were just about equal with MIT holding a 21-20 advantage. The Pride had a 12-10 edge in shots on target.
• Mangiafico made nine stops in cage while junior Noah Pote (Washington, Conn.) made eight for Springfield.

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