ROSEMONT, Pa. – The No. 2 seed Cairn University men's soccer team fell in the Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) Championship game on the road at top-seeded Rosemont College by a score of 2-1 on Saturday evening.
The conference championship rematch one year in the making lived up to the hype early on, as Cairn (9-6-5, 4-0-3 CSAC) and Rosemont (10-2-5, 5-0-2 CSAC) battled through a physical, tightly-contested matchup in the early going, with both team generating chances. The Ravens nearly took the lead in the 19
th minute, when
Sean Milelli fired a shot to the upper-right portion of the goal, forcing fifth-year net minder
Kameron Clark (Ewing, NJ / Ewing) to make an acrobatic stop to keep the game deadlocked. Cairn had the next golden opportunity in the 21
st minute, when sophomore
Chase Segool (Aston Township, PA / Sun Valley) teed up a free kick and delivered a beautiful ball inside the box to a leaping fifth-year
Josh Goodyear (Camp Hill, PA / Camp Hill HS), who's header caught the crossbar to keep the game tied heading into intermission.
Cairn struck first out of the break, when senior
Aaron Campbell (Coopersburg, PA / Upper Bucks Christian) crossed the ball into the box off a touch from Segool, where an awaiting sophomore
Jesse Brittain (Chester, PA / The Christian Academy) fought through the Rosemont back line and skidded the ball past Raven keeper
Brady Hochman to give the Highlanders a 1-0 lead in the 60
th minute.
Brittain nearly extended the advantage to 2-0 in the 67
th minute, when the crafty sophomore created some space from 25 yards out and fired a shot just high. Rosemont had its answer in the 78
th minute, when
Kevin Sousa found himself open in the slot off a feed from
Clayton Crosse to knot the game up at one a-piece. The decisive tally for the Ravens came with just over four minutes remaining, when Milelli delivered a free kick from past midfield to the left-hand portion of the box. The ball deflected off
Matthew Pattison to an awaiting
Santi Possu, who connected with the top-right portion of the net from a difficult angle to give the Ravens a 2-1 advantage. The Highlanders got one final pair of chances late in the game, when sophomore
Jayson Fields (Vineland, NJ / Cumberland Christian) drew a foul in Raven territory. However, the chance and the ensuing corner kick did not result in a goal, and Rosemont clinched its second consecutive conference title.
Brittain and fifth-year
Micah Portis (Abington, PA / Abington HS) led the offensive output for Cairn with two shots a-piece. Clark corralled six saves in a complete game performance.
The Highlanders concluded the 2022 campaign with nine total wins, an unbeaten record in conference play (4-0-3), a fifth-straight season with a record of .500 or better, and a second consecutive appearance in the CSAC Title game.
