Courtesy of Brian Beard

Last weekend, the men’s soccer team (12–3–3; 5–2–3 NESCAC) dominated on its home field, beating Lyon College (10–7–3) and University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass) (13–4–4) to advance to the round of sixteen in the NCAA Division III tournament.

Playing against Lyon on Saturday, the team set a program record for the most goals scored in an NCAA tournament game, winning 7–2. In the sixth minute, captain Mateo Pacelli ’26 started the scoring for the Polar Bears with a top right corner shot off a feed from midfielder Alden Mehta ’27.

“I knew early on that they weren’t tracking me very well up front, and actually a couple minutes before, I had almost an identical play,” Pacelli said. “[Mehta] won the ball from a defender, I made the run, took a touch, and this time I took an extra touch, then ripped it across the net.”

Less than ten minutes later, Pacelli assisted fellow captain Tyler Huck ’26 to make the score 2–0. Then, in the span of four minutes, forward Adam Prince ’28 scored two header goals, one from Huck and the other from midfielder Paul Surkov ’26. Prince completed his first collegiate hat trick in the second half, making him the first Polar Bear to earn one in an NCAA tournament game.

Head Coach Scott Wiercinski was proud of  the players’ individual performances as well as the team playing as a unit.

“[Prince] was really dynamic, and I think he had two other chances,” Wiercinski said. “[Mehta] has been sidelined with a lot of injuries this season, but more recently the last three or four weeks, he’s been really consistent and really hardworking. So it’s nice to see [the] guys persevere through the highs and lows of a season and come out and play really well on an important day.”

In contrast to Saturday’s strong start, the Polar Bears conceded the first goal of the game in the 17th minute against UMass Boston.

“When that first goal was conceded…, it’s not a goal that we conceded from the passage of play. It’s just a silly mistake,” Pacelli said. “But the best way to respond is, the second something like that happens, get back on the front foot. We said before the game, ‘If we get scored on first, no problem.’ We play our same game, just take back the front foot.”

The team wasn’t down for long, as Mehta drew a foul in the UMass Boston penalty area, awarding the Polar Bears a penalty kick. Huck drained the shot, tying the game 1–1. Five minutes later, defender Keito Ishibashi ’27 sent a ball into the box, finding defender Liam Myers ’28, who headed the ball into the back of the net for his fourth goal of the season.

“[That was] just the perfect ball for [Ishibashi],” Myers said. “We have a player run short, and then we give it back and we pass it back to [Ishibashi]. [I’m] kind of lurking in the backfield, and [Ishibashi] whips the ball in. So it was just well executed by everyone.”

The Polar Bears extended the lead to 3–1 ten minutes into the second half off a goal from Pacelli to Huck. UMass Boston had a late surge, scoring a quick goal to put pressure on the Polar Bears in the last ten minutes of regulation.

“[After Huck] scored, you still just got to keep on playing the game,” Pacelli said. “You’re searching for the next goal, you’re not playing passively, because they could just slip the ball through and hit it in the side, like they did.”

The team was able to hold on with a final score of 3–2, sending it to the Sweet Sixteen for the third time in program history and second time in the last four seasons. The Polar Bears will face the Connecticut College Camels (12–3–5; 4–2–4 NESCAC) tomorrow at Tufts University. In the regular season, the teams tied 1–1 despite the Polar Bears leading for 88 minutes. Tufts (16–1–3; 6–1–3 NESCAC) will play Messiah University (13–7–2), and the two winners will play on Sunday for a trip to the Final Four.

“We don’t have any control of whether Tufts or Messiah wins,” Pacelli said. “What we can control is how we prepare and how we come into the game on Saturday, knowing that it very well might be the last game we play this season.”