A soccer team from Kentucky has crashed the Final Four. ‘We just want it more.’

Miami Herald

They’re making history in Danville this season.

The Centre College men’s soccer team is headed to the Final Four of the Division III NCAA Tournament for the first time ever next month, sparked by a magical late-season run and a miraculous come-from-behind win in the Elite Eight last weekend.

The Colonels (20-3-1) have won 14 matches in a row. Next up is a date with Amherst College of Massachusetts in the national semifinals at Greensboro, N.C., on Dec. 6. Amherst (18-1-2) was the No. 1-ranked team in the nation in the United Soccer Coaches poll entering the 64-team NCAA Tournament.

Centre will face Amherst at 5 p.m. The second semifinal in Greensboro, at 7:45 p.m., pits Tufts University of Medford, Mass. (18-2-2) against Calvin College of Grand Rapids, Mich. (23-1-1). The championship match is scheduled for Dec. 7 at 7 p.m.

Centre, coached by Jeb Burch, qualified for the Final Four by defeating Montclair (N.J.) State University 3-2 in overtime at Gambier, Ohio, on Sunday.

Junior forward Dylan Barth’s goal with 50 seconds remaining in regulation tied the match 2-2. Will Newton put home the golden goal in overtime to win it.

Centre junior forward Dylan Barth (14) scored with 50 seconds remaining in regulation to send Sunday’s match against Montclair State to overtime. Will Newton’s goal in overtime sent the Colonels to the Final Four.
Centre junior forward Dylan Barth (14) scored with 50 seconds remaining in regulation to send Sunday’s match against Montclair State to overtime. Will Newton’s goal in overtime sent the Colonels to the Final Four.

“It was our first time going down all tournament so it was kind of a new feeling for us,” said Newton, a junior forward from Sayre who is Centre’s second-leading scorer with 10 goals this season. “But after we went down that goal and we were setting up for the kickoff, I looked around the field and I saw the look in everybody’s eyes and I had no doubt that we were going to come back and get the goals. It was just a matter of time.”

Centre’s resilience has been on display throughout the postseason. The Colonels, who finished second in the Southern Athletic Association regular season, earned the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament by winning the league tourney.

Centre defeated Birmingham-Southern 8-2 in Danville, then headed to Atlanta where it took down Millsaps, 2-0 in the semifinals, and top-seeded Oglethorpe, 4-3 in overtime, in the championship match.

The Colonels opened NCAA play at University Heights, Ohio, where they defeated Kalamazoo (Mich.) College, 1-0, and John Carroll University of Cleveland, 3-1. Next came a 4-2 Sweet 16 win over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps of California in Gambier, Ohio, before Sunday’s thriller over Montclair State.

Centre’s 33-man roster boasts 16 players from Kentucky high schools. In addition to Newton, Vogt and Barth (Manual) are freshman goalkeeper Tyler Voyer (Ballard), senior goalkeeper Tate Johnson (St. Henry), sophomore goalkeeper Haydon Korfhage (St. Xavier), sophomore midfielder Ethan Noel (Hopkinsville), sophomore defender Michael Hagerty (St. Xavier), freshman midfielder Jack Rodes (Paul Laurence Dunbar), sophomore midfielder Nafiz Budeiri (Henry Clay), senior midfielder James Warinner (Boyle County), sophomore midfielder Ben Bowers (Trinity), sophomore midfielder Abshir Abdi (Collegiate), freshman midfielder Max Gordinier (St. Xavier), freshman midfielder Ezra Sanford (Collegiate), freshman midfielder Alexander Faulk (South Oldham) and junior defender Michael Vogt (Covington Catholic).

The roster also includes three players from Tennessee, two each from North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida and one apiece from Missouri, Connecticut, Georgia, Ohio, Virginia, Texas, New Jersey and California.

Burch, a Centre graduate, has been head coach at Centre since 2002. Burch, who is 226-87-34 all-time, ranks among the top 25 active Division III coaches nationally in winning percentage. He is assisted by former Transylvania University player Tate Spivey and volunteer coaches Xavier Tomlin and Tim Masthay, the former University of Kentucky and Green Bay Packers punter.

Alexander Garuba, a fifth-year senior from Atlanta, leads the Colonels with 23 goals and 52 points. Newton has 27 points. Barth has nine goals and 22 points. Wilcox (17) and Budeiri (14) have also tallied double digits in points.

Johnson is 15-2-1 in goal. Korfhage is 5-1-0.

Centre is the only team in the Final Four that was not ranked in the United Soccer Coaches’ most recent Top 25 poll. Amherst is No. 1, Calvin No. 2 and Tufts No. 5.

The party crashers from Kentucky aren’t ready to stop now.

“It’s all about the character of this team,” Vogt said. “We never quit. We put the hours in, and we just want it more than the guys across from us.”