A week after their most agonizing loss of the season, the DU Pioneers authored perhaps their best half of soccer this fall.
Three Pios scored in the opening 25 minutes, the last two assisted by senior Sam Bassett, as the University of Denver men’s soccer team beat Gardner-Webb 3-0 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at University of Denver Soccer Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The Runnin’ Bulldogs (13-4-3) managed just two shots on goal against the third-seeded Pioneers (13-3-4), who advanced to the NCAA Round of 16 for the first time since the program’s run to the College Cup in 2016. Next up is a showdown with 14th-seeded Indiana (11-4-5) at 2 p.m. Saturday back on DU’s campus.
All three of the Pios’ goals came within seven minutes, starting with senior midfielder Ben Smith’s back-heel finish of a well-placed cross from sophomore forward Bryce Willoughby in the 19th minute. Freshman forward Keegan Kelly and junior defender Trevor Wright followed with goals in the 24th and 25th minutes off assists from Bassett to take a commanding 3-0 lead that Gardner-Webb never challenged.
Bassett claimed the program’s single-season assist record (12) with his two helpers, both of which came off restarts.
The first was a free kick from 20 yards into DU’s half of the field that Kelly finished with a diving header on a back-post run. The Pios quickly earned a corner kick after that, and Bassett sent a ball into the box that Wright ran onto and finished with a cracking header.
The team’s three first-half goals represented the Pios’ most in an NCAA Tournament half since 2016, while Kelly and Wright’s goals were the 12th-fastest consecutive scores in the program’s DI history at 75 seconds.
All-in-all, it was a dominant performance for DU and an impressive response after the Pios lost the Summit League title game the week before to UMKC on a goal in the 90th minute.
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