St. Cloud State Men’s Soccer Season Ends in Heartbreaking Fashion

Saturday, October 28

St. Cloud, Minn.

1 P.M. CT

St. Cloud State

3-6-6, 3-3-4

Saginaw Valley State University

4-7-5, 2-5-3

Saginaw Valley

St. Cloud St.

Photo by: Justyce Porter

St. Cloud State Men’s Soccer Season Ends in Heartbreaking Fashion

10/28/2023 9:17:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

Huskies drop GLIAC Quarterfinals match to SVSU on penalty kicks

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – St. Cloud State Men's Soccer (3-6-6 overall, 3-3-4 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) season has concluded after its GLIAC Quarterfinals match against Saginaw Valley State on Saturday afternoon at Husky Stadium in St. Cloud ended in a penalty shootout that favored the Cardinals, 4-3, after playing 110 minutes of scoreless soccer.

The game was tied 0-0 after 90 minutes of regulation. Since it is the postseason, the teams played two ten-minute overtime periods. There was still no score after both overtime periods, so the game went to a penalty shootout. The Huskies were only able to convert three of their five chances, while the Cardinals converted four of their five to advance to the GLIAC Tournament semifinals where they will face off against UW-Parkside.

TOP HUSKIES

Fifth-year goalkeeper Dylan De Baldo (Vancouver, Wash.) came up with big saves on many occasions. Played all 110 minutes, making 10 saves in regulation/overtime and one save in the penalty shootout.
Junior defender Noah Eklund (Andover, Minn.), junior midfielder Nolan Pratumwon (Mahtomedi, Minn.), fifth-year defender Vukota Mastilovic (Belgrade, Serbia), sophomore defender Juan Villegas (Miami, Fla.) and redshirt freshman Andrew Holmes (St. Cloud, Minn.) all played the full 110 minutes.
Junior midfielder Philip Caputo (Eagan, Minn.) led the team with five shots and converted his penalty in the shootout

QUOTEABLES – St. Cloud State head coach Sean Holmes

"It's always a bummer to lose – I think it goes down as a tie – but the effort today was absolutely fantastic...they had chances, we had chances, there were contentious moments as there always is in playoff games of any kind...Saginaw Valley State has a national championship in their DNA and they came to compete...penalty shots are a bit of a crap shoot – the irony that the final one was missed by the guy who is probably the best player on the field – that's just soccer, that's sports sometimes...the hardest, most difficult thing at the end of the season is that for a bunch of guys don't get to do it again...we started our program in COVID, four years ago – the guys who were on the field today as seniors and fifth-year seniors just did so much to help build our program...Vuke [Mastilovic], our captain, said something in the preseason press conference that has echoed things I've said – he said, "The real glory of the program and the real success maybe will happen after some of us graduate – they will have built us up." And I think that's what really was most evident today – that the leadership that those guys provided was fantastic......losing and ending and knowing that Monday you don't have training is always a little bit gut wrenching...there were so many good things in the progress we made, not only in the three years of the program but over the course of the season. We went to Denver and got rocked in our second game and it didn't look much better the following week and now all of the sudden here we are hosting playoff games against really good teams... we didn't get the result today, but we will win games and win a championship in a year or two because of today. That's hard to remember and hopefully the guys will remember that when we're lifting weights at 6 a.m. in February when it's minus 30 degrees or we're putting up the dome in two weeks which takes a little bit of work...losing hurts but there were some terrific moments today and it was certainly entertaining – one of the things we wanted to do when we came here was make soccer exciting to watch and today, I was proud of that. To come to our games is not to see crappy, boring soccer – which is weird because after 110 minutes it was 0-0 but it was breathtaking at times and there were many chances at both ends and for that I'm proud because we wanted to make soccer exciting, and I think we've done that."

On players having to move around and step up due to injuries during the game... "He [Charlie Pritchard] played two seasons there [at left-back] so he was terrific...in the NFL they always say "next man up" – you've got to be ready. You talk about it in theory but then it comes time to do it when it really happens, and I thought he was terrific.

On players that impressed... "Juan [Villegas], Nolan [Pratumwon], Vuke [Mastilovic] and Andrew Holmes – that middle four of guys played a lot of minutes this season...Dylan [De Baldo] was fantastic – you know last year when Gage Steiner graduated, we were worried about like what do we do now and Dylan came in and was outrageously good – is there a better adjective for that? I mean he was just so terrific and displayed leadership and positivity every day in training and guys learn from that."

Looking back on the season... "At one point we gave up 14 goals in two games, 9-0 and 5-1, and I think today was our fourth shutout of the conference – I didn't think that was possible six weeks ago. I would say this was the single greatest transformation in a season that I've ever been a part of – I've been coaching for a few years. We opened the season at Colorado Christian 0-0, and I was like, "okay, this is alright" – at altitude, in the heat. Then we collapsed for a couple game and then one day we just one day, sort of got together some resolve and decided this is what we're going to do and the guys followed the gameplan of what we wanted to try to do and man – the rollercoaster – I wouldn't say we quite got to the zenith, but were certainly at the nadir, at one point it was just like, woof – it was desperate and we corrected it – the guys worked really hard and they listened and they were coachable and teachable. I'm fortunate – Ross McMullan, Grant Bell and Zach Neiberger are some guys who help me and do a really great job.

NOTABLES

With the tie, the Huskies are now 0-4-3 all-time against Saginaw Valley State. SCSU played the Cardinals to a draw in all three 2023 matchups.
SCSU's current unbeaten streak of five matches is the longest in program history and will carry over to next season.
The Huskies finished with the best record in program history by points (15 – 3 wins, 6 ties, previous was 13 in each of the last two seasons – 4 wins/1 tie in 2021 and 3 wins/4 ties in 2022).
SCSU's conference record of 3-3-4 this year is the new program-best mark, calculated by conference points (13 – 3 wins, 4 ties, previous was 9 in 2021 – 3 wins).
SCSU finished fourth in the GLIAC standings – the best finish program history.
The Huskies led the game in saves (10-5) and corner kicks (7-5)
Saginaw Valley State led the game in shots (24-11) and shots on goal (10-5).
De Baldo made a season-high 10 saves (plus a save in the penalty shootout), faced a career high 24 shots, and tied his career high minutes in a game (110) while earning his fifth shutout of the year...started every match this season for the Huskies playing all but 21 minutes.
Mastilovic tied his career-high by playing all 110 minutes...started every game for the Huskies this season and played all but 13 available minutes...started every game possible for the Huskies (50 – every game in program history).
Fifth-year midfielder Zinedine Kroeten (St. Louis Park, Minn) logged a career-high 106 minutes in his final match as a Husky...finished as the team's points leader (10 – 4 goals/2 assists)...played in every match this season, starting all but one.
Eklund tied his career-high playing 110 minutes...started every match for the Huskies this season.
Pratumwon logged a career-high 110 minutes...started every match for the Huskies this season.
Villegas logged a career-high 110 minutes...played in all but one match this season and started the last 12 straight.
Holmes logged a career-high 110 minutes...played in every match this season and started all but two.
Caputo played a career-high 96 minutes and tied his career-high for shots in a game (five)...started every match he played in (12).
Sophomore midfielder Rhys Ward (Bettendorf, Iowa) played a season-high 65 minutes.