BALTIMOMRE, Md. - The run toward the Centennial Conference men's soccer championship ended in a penalty kick shootout for Haverford College Sunday at Homewood Field where the Fords and Dickinson College played to a 1-1 tie through regulation and a pair of overtime periods, but the Red Devils hoisted the championship trophy after coming out ahead 3-2 in five rounds of kicks.
The tie leaves the Fords with an 11-6-2 record. Dickinson (10-4-5) moves on to the NCAA tournament with the league's automatic qualifier bid.
Haverford, attempting to be the first No. 5 seed to win a Centennial championship in conference history, nabbed the early lead scoring in the 10th minute of a game played on the home field of Johns Hopkins University, the tournament's top seed which lost to the Fords in the seminfinal round. Colin Lubelczyk corralled the ball at midfield and moved quickly down the right sideline, driving deep before looking to his left to see David Robinson streaking between a pair of Red Devil defenders. Lubelczyk sent a soft pass into the box and Robinson slid a shot under the Dickinson goalkeeper to push the Fords into a 1-0 lead.
Both teams threatened with scoring chances a few more times during the opening period but neither scored sending the opponents into halftime with the Fords clinging to a one-goal advantage.
While Haverford owned the better of play through the midfield in the first 45 minutes, Dickinson gained that edge in the second half, eventually breaking through with an equalizing goal in the 76th minute. Javier Mena flicked a ball over the Fords' defensive back line and Bryan Gilmartin slotted a shot inside the left post before Nick Kahn, the Fords' charging keeper, could gain position.
Over the remaining 14 minutes and through two 10-minute overtime periods, every possession run into opposing territory drew cheers from one team's fans and gasps from the other's. Dickinson generated three shots during the extra periods with the Fords registering one, an Adam Morollo header that slid just outside the left post in the fourth minute of the second overtime.
Kahn finished with six saves for Haverford. Andriy Mshanetskyy stepped between the pipes for the Fords in the shootout. Dickinson keeper Cody Hickok earned the win in goal for the Red Devils coming up with one save.
The Fords' season closes on a nine-game unbeaten streak. Not since the 10th minute of that first game in the streak, an eventual overtime win over Dickinson, had the Fords trailed an opponent and the run in the Centennial playoffs was the first by a Haverford squad since it joined the league in 1993.