Rochester tops Spartans 3-0, four-way tie for UAA title

The Case Western Reserve University men’s soccer team concluded a disappointing 2012 season with a 3-0 loss to No. 21 University of Rochester. The host Yellowjackets pulled away in the second half with three late goals to give them the win and ensure that the Spartans would end the conference season at the bottom of the table, with zero points.

The Spartans ended their season with a 3-14-1 overall record and 0-7-0 record in the University Athletic Association. The season comes just one year after Case won the UAA conference title by going 15-5-0 overall and 5-2-0 in the UAA.

The No. 21 Yellowjackets ended their season with a 10-3-3 record overall, finishing 3-1-3 in the UAA.

The UAA standings saw an unprecedented four-way tie atop the table with Brandeis University, Carnegie Mellon University, Washington University, and Emory University all finishing with 4-2-1 records and 13 points. Rochester finished fifth with 12 points. The University of Chicago finished 2-3-2 with eight points in sixth, while New York University finished 2-4-1 with seven points. Case was eighth with zero points.

No. 6 Carnegie Mellon took home the UAA’s automatic qualifier by virtue of owning the tiebreakers. The Tartans tied with Brandeis with 2-1-0 records amongst the four gridlocked teams but the Tartans defeated the Judges in their head-to-head matchup, 2-1, on Oct. 28.

Against Rochester, the Spartans continued their stellar play early, but again it was the late goals that hurt them the most. With just five shots in the scoreless first half, the match looked to be a defensive struggle.

That trend continued for much of the second half until a Rochester cross glanced off a defender past Spartan goalkeeper Ryan Koepka for an own goal. With Rochester taking the lead in the 68th minute, the Spartans were forced to attack, straying from their defensive stance. The Yellowjackets continued the pressure, however, and added an insurance goal in the 76th minute as Jack Thesing tipped in a cross near the right post from Jeffrey Fafinski on the left side.

With the clock winding down in the final minute and the Spartans headed to an inevitable 10th loss in a row, the hosts managed to find the back of the net for the third time of the evening when Andrew Greenway beat Koepka low to the left side with just 46 seconds left in the Spartans season.

Koepka finished the match with a single save while Rochester’s Scott Garfing had four of his own.

The Spartans will set their sights on the 2013 season and attempt to put this one behind them. The Spartans finished the season on a 10-game losing streak with an abysmal 1-6-0 record at home. Case has nine seniors on its roster, including leading goal scorer Eric Erb, who had four goals on the season, as well as Ross Twanmoh and Aaron Mayer, who each had two goals. The Spartans will be losing nearly half of their goal scoring production from 2012, which tallied just .94 goals per game, down from 2.6 gpg in 2011.