Dan Doyon| Special to the Herald
DURHAM – The goal for senior Eli Goldman and the rest of his University of New Hampshire men’s soccer teammates over recent years was to make sure the Wildcats are perennially regarded as one of the upper-echelon programs at the national level.
By making their sixth straight appearance in the NCAA Division I Tournament the Wildcats have established a bit of cache, but making the tournament isn’t sufficient enough.
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The Wildcats want more, and they’ll once again have that chance for a second year in a row.
Goldman and classmate Bilal Kimal each scored within the first 9 minutes of Thursday's opening round game against Seton Hall University, and that proved to be enough for the Wildcats to hang onto a 2-1 victory over the Pirates at Wildcat Stadium.
“The standards are a hell of a lot higher,” Goldman said. “Since I’ve been here our coaches have created a culture that winning and getting into the tournament is now the norm. Now we want to get past the round of 16 or whatever it is. Now we want to get to North Carolina and get to the Final Four.”
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America East champion UNH (15-4) has now won three tournament games in its past four appearances, which included a 4-1 win over North Carolina in last year’s second round. The Wildcats then dropped a 1-0 decision at Oregon State in the third round.
The Wildcats will now travel to Miami for a second round matchup with No. 10 Florida International, after the Panthers received a first-round bye. Game time is scheduled for 6 p.m.
“I’m just proud of the way we came out (strong)," UNH coach Marc Hubbard said. "We’ve recently been coming out really strong like that, so to get those goals and settle the game was great. Then we kind of let them back in it with some poor corner kick defending. But we were able to come out in the second half, dictate tempo, possess and limit their chances.”
Seton Hall (7-4-7) was immediately put on its heels when the Wildcats attacked early. Tola Showunmi’s header hit the right post, but Goldman was there to put away the easy rebound for his team-leading ninth goal of the season to give UNH a 1-0 lead just 3:08 into the game.
“It was good to get two early (goals) and set the tone there," Goldman said. "We obviously let one through and we had some iffy moments, but we played good defense at the end and that’s all that matters. On my hold it was all Tola, he headed on post and it went right to me. All I did was tap it in."
UNH took a 2-0 lead 6 minutes later after Seton Hall goalie Hannes Ronnholmen was caught out of position following Chris Pinkham’s throw-in. Bilal pounced on the ball to poke in his fifth goal of the season.
“It’s really important to come out fast in these real, high-intense games, that gave us confidence for sure,” Bilal said. “I was waiting for the goalie to step up and it happened. I went to the back post. I just had to make a connection with it. It was the easiest goal I’ve made all season.”
Seton Hall’s Konstantin Donalles responded 3 minutes later with a goal to trim UNH’s lead to 2-1, after he headed in Johannes Pex’s corner kick past UNH goalie Jassem Koleilat.
After the scoring fireworks to start the game subsided, the Wildcats controlled play for the majority of the way until Seton Hall had to press in the final minutes of regulation. Koleilat came up with his only save of the game off an uncontested shot by Tomas Nunez.
“That was a good long range shot that was dipping, and he did a good job of defending that,” Hubbard said. “You’ve got to be prepared for tough matches in the tournament, and I’m real proud with how we defended.”
Now the Wildcats face a Florida International team whom it beat, 3-0, in the fourth game of the regular season. Hubbard feels the familiarity with the Panthers will help, but he has no illusions it’ll be the same type of outcome.
“It’s down at their place, they’ve got more rest and they understand us better,” Hubbard. “We’re going to look at what they’ve been doing lately and see where we have to adjust. The temperature will be going from the 30s to the 80’s, so we’ll be looking forward to it.”
