Unlikely goal ends Bryant men's soccer team's historic season. Here's what happened

SMITHFIELD — This wasn’t how it was supposed to end.

It’s been historic moment after historic moment for the Bryant men’s soccer team and hosting Yale in Thursday’s NCAA Tournament just added to the list.

The Bulldogs had hoped for a higher seed to avoid the first round altogether but felt confident in front of a packed house at Beirne Stadium. Bryant played patient, smart soccer in the first half and had a few chances in the second but couldn’t get the goal it was looking for. It wasn’t hard to see the Bulldogs were the better team.

More: Jared Grasso talks about resigning as Bryant basketball head coach. Here's what he said.

More: Bryant makes it official: Phil Martelli Jr. named head basketball coach, gets new deal

But in the end, it didn’t matter.

Soccer showed its cruel face on Thursday night. After playing in control for what felt like the majority of the second half, Bryant saw its season come to an end on a goal that nobody thought would actually go in. Yale’s Max Rogers had the ball 50-plus yards from the goal, saw Bryant keeper Antreas Hadjigavriel high in the box, and tried to make something happen. The shot was picture-perfect, Hadjigavriel couldn’t recover and with 1:46 left to play, there wasn’t enough time to find an equalizer as Bryant’s season ended with a 1-0 loss.

“It’s not that we won all those games, it’s how we won them. I think we were better than most of the teams for the whole season and I think it was the same [on Thursday],” Bryant’s Inigo Villaldea said. “I think we were better than the other team for a lot of minutes, but at this level, you make a mistake or in this case, not even a mistake … and you pay for it.”

“This was not supposed to end like this, but this is sport,” Bryant’s Pablo Ablanedo said. “This is soccer and sometimes this happens.”

What happened wasn’t an accident or a stroke of good luck. It was a result of a perfect storm.

Rogers had paid attention to Hadjigavriel most of the match. With Bryant dominating possession in the middle third, it allowed its goalkeeper to cheat up with confidence. Bryant was going to possess the ball and its keeper was doing what he needed to to ensure his teammates could do just that.

The play developed casually, with a contested ball being played in Rogers’ direction at the 45-yard line. Rogers was alone and as he controlled the ball, he looked up and saw Hadjigavriel near the top of the box. He didn’t hesitate and fired one from the 43-yard line — which put him 53 yards away from the goal.

“One of my coaches behind me said ‘it’s in. He’s got him,’ ” Bryant coach Ruben Resendes said. “I was like ‘No, no, no,' and it went in.”

Silence overcame the crowd at Beirne. It was an improbable shot, one Rogers had thought about taking but perhaps not actually making.

“It’s one of those things — the less you think about it the more likely you are to be successful doing it,” Rogers said. “I think you just have to trust your instincts in those moments and luckily for us today, the instincts proved right.”

The game wasn’t over. Bryant had come up with late goals previously in the season, but on this night couldn’t find an equalizer. Players gathered at midfield stunned at the result as Yale celebrated in the far corner of the field before running over to its small group of fans who had made the trip for the game.

“I was crying,” Bryant’s Vicente Valor Martinez said. “I didn’t expect this. We didn’t expect this.”

Not many expected Bryant to have the season it did.

Fernandes came to the program after guiding Franklin Pierce to the Division II National Championship in 2022. He set lofty goals for the Bulldogs this season and while they may have seemed unrealistic, Fernandes believed this team could achieve them.

Hosting an NCAA Tournament game on Thursday was a part of it.

“That was the goal from the beginning — to win as many games as we did and to be in the NCAA Tournament and to compete and win a conference championship,” Fernandes said. “We fell short of what we wanted to do in the NCAA Tournament, but we’ll learn from this.”

“It was amazing to be a part of the team this year and I hope we can create something like this for next year,” Villaldea said. “Now that we have the base, I think it’s going to be easier for next year to accomplish the goals that we have.”

Thursday ended in defeat, but the fan reaction was anything but.

After dealing with the immediate aftermath of the loss, players shared hugs and handshakes with teammates and some of the Yale players scattered on the field. Slowly, Bryant players walked toward the bleachers as a large group of fans gathered to give the team that made school history one final cheer.

“We can feel the support from the university, from our friends, from the teachers, the staff and all the other athletic teams,” Ablanedo said. “We were kind of expecting people to come [Thursday], but how it was was just amazing.”

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Bryant men's soccer team loses to Yale, 1-0, in NCAA tournament