Late red card, set piece defense doom DU Pioneers men’s soccer in Summit League final

The number’s in UMKC’s contact list. Against the University of Denver in the Summit League final, the Roos dialed it again.

After dominating possession and going up a goal early, the Pioneers men’s soccer team looked to have a lock on the conference title that eluded them against the same opponent a year ago. But the Roos tied the game near the end of the first half and, with a man advantage, grabbed a winner to clinch their second-straight Summit League title, 2-1, on Saturday at DU Soccer Stadium.

“I thought we could have been more dangerous in this game,” DU coach Jamie Franks said. “To have all the ball and to not really give up many chances and to give up as many chances as we did on set pieces, it’s frustrating because I didn’t think they were getting much from the run of play. It’s a good learning lesson for us.”

Through the opening 10 minutes, the Pioneers were pounding on the door with two early corners and a shot from distance that sailed just over the crossbar. But their opening goal came off the back of one of UMKC’s first good strings of possession.

After a steal from defender Dylan Akau in the 15th minute, freshman winger Keegan Kelly came up with the ball in space, then found midfielder Sam Bassett with an inch-perfect through ball between three defenders. Bassett took a touch, flipped his hips and tucked it past Roos goalkeeper Brandon McGaugh to the far post.

From then, a rout felt imminent. The Pios were more energetic and swarmed on defense. That came to a halt after UMKC defender Bryson Gosch got on the pinball end of a corner to level things up in the 28th minute.

Eventually, the Roos got their winner in the 90th minute off another corner. The ball missed Ronan Wynne’s head by inches before falling to an open Elie Kisoka for a nice one-touch goal with 13 seconds to play.

In the 74th minute, the Pioneers went down a man after forward Ian Smith stepped on a UMKC player’s leg as he was sliding for the ball. After a lengthy review, referee Cesar Ibarra issued a red card to Smith.

“The red card, you can watch it 100 times over and I just don’t see the intent that’s involved with it. Both players were going into the ball and the (UMKC player) left himself vulnerable and I thought it was a foul on him,” Franks said. “And to turn around, go to VAR and then have it be a red card, it was, to be honest, it was a shock. And when you watch it again, it’s still a shock.

“We know there was more on the field that we could have done and we could have put that game away a lot earlier, but we didn’t.”

Heading into the selection show for this year’s NCAA Tournament, Franks was still positive. There’s almost no doubt the Pioneers will hear their names on Monday as one of 26 at-large bids in the 48-team field with quality wins over top programs and a narrow conference title-game loss. What matters most to Franks is how his team bounces back.

“We’ve gone out and played these top teams and our top-100 record is (9-3-4), so our body of work speaks for itself,” Franks said. “Obviously, we’re frustrated because we have to play down a guy in this game, but it’s just about taking it one game at a time.”

The first round of the NCAA Tournament is scheduled for Thursday, but should they earn a bye, the Pioneers will open their run on Sunday, Nov. 24.

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