Senior defender Eric DeJulio and freshman forward Brycec Gibson are the lone Sporting KC Academy products remaining as the NCAA Men’s Division I Soccer Tournament enters the quarterfinal round. DeJulio’s Creighton Blue Jays upset the No. 5 seed North Carolina Tar Heels 1-0 to advance to their fourth quarterfinal in the past five years.
DeJulio played 90 minutes in Saturday’s victory at Fetzer Field on the campus of the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. Creighton’s shutout was their 10th of the season. They’ll now play an Akron side that outshot Southern Methodist University 40-13 en route to a 2-1 victory in front of 2,280 fans at FirstEnergy Stadium.
The winner of the four quarterfinal matchups will advance to the College Cup at Sporting Park. The College Cup semifinals will be played on Dec. 11 with the championship match played on Dec. 13. Tickets for this year’s College Cup are available now and can be purchased at Ticketmaster.com or by calling 888-4KC-GOAL. Groupon is also offering a limited-time deal for passes to both the semifinal doubleheader as well as the championship match.
Akron, a perennial collegiate soccer powerhouse, are looking to advance to their first College Cup since 2010 when then-head coach (and current Portland Timbers head coach) Caleb Porter led the Zips to their first national championship. Saturday’s quarterfinal match is a rematch of the 2012 NCAA Tournement Third Round when Creighton defeated Akron 5-4 on penalty kicks. The 2012 match featured a bevy of future professionals including Sporting KC defender Saad Abdul-Salaam, Columbus Crew midfielder Wil Trapp and Sunderland defender DeAndre Yedlin, who has appeared 19 times for the U.S. Men’s National Team in 2015.
The winner of Saturday’s Creighton-Akron will advance to the College Cup and play the winner of Wake Forest and Stanford. The No. 1 seed Demon Deacons defeated Indiana 1-0 behind Ricky Greensfelder’s 88th-minute strike. Stanford’s Jordan Morris - who has six appearances for the U.S. MNT - scored twice in a 3-1 win over Ohio State. The Cardinal are a win away from their first College Cup appearance since 2002, a squad led by future MLS Cup champions Todd Dunivant and Chad Marshall.
The opposite side of the bracket featured a pair of upsets as Boston College defeated No. 3 seed Georgetown and No. 10 seed Maryland defeated No. 7 seed Notre Dame. Boston College are the only unseeded team remaining in the tournament after beating Georgetown on penalty kicks 5-4. They’ll face a Syracuse team that beat Seattle University 3-1 at SU Soccer Stadium in Syracuse, New York. The winner of the Boston College-Syracuse quarterfinal match will advance to their first College Cup.
The final quarterfinal matchup pits Maryland against No. 2 seed Clemson. Maryland defeated Notre Dame 1-0 in the third round, while Clemson defeated University of California - Santa Barbara 3-2. Sporting KC Academy product Seo-In Kim (Blue Valley West) scored the opening goal for UCSB in their 3-2 loss. He became the third SKC Academy alum to score in this year’s tournament, joining Drake’s Steven Enna and North Carolina’s Zach Wright.
