Brandywine Marches Into National Title Game With 5-0 Triumph Over New Kensington

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- Third-seeded Penn State Brandywine will play to win its second men's soccer national championship in three seasons as the Lions concluded pool play at the United States Collegiate Athletic Tournament by handling sixth-seeded Penn State New Kensington 5-0 on Sunday afternoon.

The 2018 USCAA Division II National Champion, Brandywine will meet Five Towns College, the top seed in the tournament, Monday at 4:30 PM for the national championship. The match will be played at the Virginia Sportsplex in Virginia Beach, Va.

Brandywine, which is now undefeated in 66-straight matches against Penn State University Athletic Conference competition, will look to become the third team from the league in all sports to own multiple national championships.

The Lions, now 12-0-1 since the beginning of October, handled New Kensington for the second time in four weeks after posting a 11-0 road victory at PSNK during the regular season.

Josh Land (Boerne, Texas./Samuel V. Champion) contributed a pair of goals for the Lions, while Joey Cairy (Aston, Pa./Sun Valley), Khafren Smith (Philadelphia, Pa./Science Learning Academy) and Alex Sydor (White Plains, N.Y./Ardsley) also found the back of the net.

Sydor, a first team all-American and the USCAA scoring leader, scored off a feed from Ryan Stevens (Kingston, Pa./Wyoming Valley West) to put Brandywine on top 1-0 at the 24:33 mark. Just over four minutes later, Land netted his first goal of the contest and Brandywine took a 2-0 lead into halftime.

The Lions put the game away with three more second-half tallies. Ethan Harper (Douglassville, Pa./Daniel Boone) assisted on Cairy's goal during the 57th minute, while Smith upped the lead to 4-0 less than 10 minutes later. Land put a cap on the scoring during the 84th minute.

Brandywine, which outshot New Kensington 22-5, received three saves from John Simpson (Philadelphia, Pa./Franklin Towne Charter), who earned his ninth victory. Rory Travers (Springfield, Pa./Springfield) played the final 10:56 in goal, making two stops, to preserve Brandywine's 14th shutout of the season.

Brandywine and Five Towns will meet for the first time in history Monday evening. Five Towns defeated Penn State Beaver and Central Maine during pool play to reach the national title match.