Tag: Oregon State Soccer

Oregon State soccer player discovered ineligible AFTER Elite 8 win over UNC

The UNC men’s soccer team saw its strong season come to an end on Saturday, Dec. 2 in the Elite 8 round. Controversy emerged the week after.

Saturday, Dec. 2 was a sad night for UNC soccer fans, with the men’s team losing a tightly-contested, 1-0 defensive battle at home against Oregon State in the Elite 8.

The Beavers scored a first half goal and, despite a couple of solid Tar Heel chances, held on and advance to the College Cup. Oregon State has since seen its season come to an end, losing 1-0 to Notre Dame in a semifinal match.

What resulted long after UNC’s loss to the Beavers, however, is what’s frustrating.

Oregon State midfielder Javier Armas, a Pac-12 First Team selection this past year, was later discovered to be ruled ineligible for the UNC matchup.

Armas’ ineligibility resulted from his eighth yellow card accumulated in the Sweet 16, when the Beavers beat 2024 ACC newcomer SMU (Southern Methodist University).

Though it’s tough to find any good news for Carolina in this situation, Armas never scored in the Elite 8 contest. Soccer is one of those sports, however, where you don’t need to score to positively affect the game.

While there are a lot of what ifs in this situation, I’m sure this wouldn’t be talked about if UNC had emerged victorious. The Tar Heels did nothing wrong – it’s just simply not fair when an opponent’s best player, despite being ineligible, is allowed to play.

It’d be nice to see a replay, or even UNC in the College Cup, but we’re already at the Championship round. An ACC program will win it all regardless, as Notre Dame faces Clemson, on Monday at 6 p.m. ET on ESPNU.

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Vician saves Tar Heels’ season in regulation, helps them advance to Elite 8 in shootout

Martin Vician, the Harvard transfer who’s now an integral part of the UNC men’s soccer team, tied Sunday’s game and scored a shootout goal.

There were just under five minutes left in the UNC men’s soccer season on Sunday night, with the Tar Heels trailing Hofstra 2-1.

The visiting Pride, who won the Colonial Athletic Association conference tournament, clung to its 1-goal advantage for most of the game.

Here came Martin Vician to save the day for Carolina.

In the 86th minute, Vician head home a Quenzi Huerman free kick to tie the game at two. Vician was also one of five Tar Heels to score in the shootout, helping his team capture a 3-2 victory and advance to host Oregon State – in the Elite Eight – on Saturday at 5 p.m. ET.

After both teams failed to score in the two overtime periods, despite plenty of chances to do so, UNC went a perfect 5-for-5 in the shootout. Huerman, Vician, Andrew Czech, Ernest Bawa and Sam Williams all netted goals for the Tar Heels.

With both Williams and Hofstra’s Eliot Goldthorp converting on the shootout’s first two chances, UNC star goalkeeper Andrew Cordes needed to make a crucial save. He did exactly that, which seemed to be the offensive momentum boost Carolina needed to end things.

The Tar Heels lost via shootout to Clemson in the ACC Tournament Final, so I’m sure they were thankful to win Sunday night. They’ll be hosting Oregon State, who is coming off a 7-1, Sweet 16 domination of future ACC school SMU, on Saturday, Dec. 2 at 5 p.m.

If you can’t make it to the game, for which plenty of tickets are still available, you can watch on ESPN+.

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