ST. MARY'S CITY, Md. — Penn College men's soccer opens the United East Conference Championship on Saturday, Oct. 31. For the second consecutive season, the Wildcats enter the postseason as the fifth seed and begin their championship quest at fourth-seeded St. Mary's College of Maryland in a quarterfinal matchup at 5 p.m.
The #5 beside their name bode well for the Wildcats' run to a conference final a season ago, and head Coach
Tyler Mensch hopes to produce the same results to get back to compete in another conference final.
"I think it is a loaded tournament, and I could see a few "upsets" occurring. Playoff season comes down to hard work and energy. You have to be disciplined and play fearlessly. Playing scared generally leads to mistakes that can cost you matches. We are hoping the #5 seed does us as well as it did in 2025." Mensch said.
The Wildcats enter the postseason at 8-5-4 overall after finishing conference play with a 5-2-1 record and 16 points. Penn College finished tied with St. Mary's in the United East standings, but the Seahawks earned the No. 4 seed based on a stronger goal differential against common conference opponents.
Penn College secured its postseason berth with a conference campaign highlighted by wins over Lancaster Bible College, Keystone College and Wilson College. The Wildcats defeated Lancaster Bible, 2-0, on Oct. 3, and followed with a 2-1 road victory at Keystone on Oct. 10 before earning a 4-1 win over Wilson on Oct. 13.
Warrick Beachy and
Scott Goldfeder stand out among 16 different Wildcat scorers as the duo have scored five goals and added an assist each to pace the attack.
Diego Diaz has an eye for finding the open man with a team-high six assists. On the backend, reigning conference Rookie of the Year and first-team goalkeeper,
Justin Crismale scored two shutouts and collected 104 saves in net while his defensive teammates helped him to a 0.732 save percentage.
"We've had a balanced attack with multiple guys scoring which is good as defenses cannot key on one guy for every match. Set pieces have been a strength for our offense, while defensively we have limited teams grade "A" scoring opportunities and have done a good job of keeping matches close." Mensch said.
The Wildcats have a familiar history in the past two road matchups against St. Mary's, including a 0-0 draw on Oct. 17 and a 2-1 victory in the semifinals a season ago.
St. Mary's enters the quarterfinal at 8-8-1 overall and 5-2-1 in conference play. The Seahawks finished the regular season unbeaten in their final six conference contests, posting a 5-0-1 mark during that stretch to secure home-field advantage.
"St. Mary's is a really good team who is battle-tested throughout the entire Fall. It is a challenging quarterfinal match but having played them strong over the past two seasons we are hoping to carry that momentum and confidence over into Saturday's match. The crowd will be into it, and we need to control our emotions from the opening whistle. Survive the first 15 minutes and settle into the match. Anything can happen in the "survive and advance" season." Mensch said.
Penn State Abington locked up the top-seed and will take on #8 Cairn, #2 Penn State Harrisburg hosts #7 Notre Dame of Maryland, and #3 Lancaster Bible hosts #6 Keystone in other quarterfinal contests around the league on Saturday. The Quarterfinal winners meet at the highest remaining seeds for the semifinal round on Tuesday, with the championship final taking place on Saturday.
