After 110 minutes of play and 11 penalty kicks, and with the 1-1 tie in the books, it all came down to one shot for Wesleyan and Western New England College in their second-round NCAA tournament game on Sunday. Wesleyan had converted five penalty kicks to the Golden Bears’ four, and another unsuccessful attempt by the visitors would end their season. Up stepped Western New England junior Justin Martins, as Wesleyan keeper Adam Purdy ’13 readied himself. Martins sent a shot towards the lower-right corner of the net, but Purdy guessed correctly and dove to his left, fully extended, to get two hands on the ball for the save, sending the Wesleyan bench into hysterics and the 11th-ranked Cardinals into the round of 16 for the first time in program history.

“It was so not real—the last thing I expected,” said Purdy, who had three saves in the contest, after the game. “The happiest moment of this year so far. I was actually reading [the penalty kicks] pretty well today. It just worked out.”

Purdy, who made two saves as the teams tied 0-0 in Springfield on Sept. 20, also recorded a key stop on Western New England’s first penalty kick, diving to his left to push the ball into the right post and away from the net. That gave Wesleyan a 1-0 edge, as Walter Rodriguez ’13 had converted the opening kick. Each team converted its next three attempts, as Austin Woolridge ’11, Woody Redpath ’10, and tri-captain Nick Whipple ’10 made good for the Cardinals. With Wesleyan clinging to a 4-3 edge, Asante Brooks ’10 stepped up with a chance to send the Cardinals into the third round, but Brooks’ low, driving kick sailed right at the Western New England keeper, who made the stop. Western New England converted its fifth attempt to make it 4-4 and send it into a sudden-victory round. Rory O’Neill’s ’13 kick high and to the left found the back of the net, setting the stage for Purdy’s heroics.

O’Neill had also tied the game for Wesleyan in the 50th minute as the Cardinals rallied from a 1-0 halftime deficit. Following a corner kick, Keisuke Yamashita ’10 launched a shot from 10 yards out that was stopped by the Western New England keeper, but O’Neill got to the rebound and put it in to even the score 4:16 into the period, his second goal of the season. Yamashita tallied his fifth assist on the play to raise his team-leading point total to 13.

Western New England had taken a 1-0 lead in the 36th minute on a header by junior Kienan Garn. Following a corner kick, Wesleyan attempted to head the ball out of the goal area, but it stayed in the box and was headed to Garn in the left side. Garn’s header sailed over Purdy, giving the Golden Bears the early lead.

The game marked only the fourth time all season Wesleyan trailed in a game. The Cardinals also faced a 1-0 deficit in its season opener at Williams on Sept. 12, a contest from which they emerged with a 1-1 tie, and at Trinity on Oct. 3, a game the Cardinals won 2-1. Head coach Geoff Wheeler noted after the game that despite having played down only three prior times, the Cardinals did not panic when faced with the deficit.

“I don’t think there was any panic,” said Wheeler. “There’s a real determination to this team that exists that regardless of what the score is, whether we’re ahead or behind, we’re just going to work at it and work at it and work at it, and we did.”

Due to damage to Jackson Field’s grass surface from two games played in persistent rain on Saturday, the match was moved to Smith Field. Wesleyan played on the artificial surface twice in 2008, including a 3-0 loss to Western New England in the season opener. (The Cardinals also fell 3-1 to Trinity on Sept. 27 of that year.)

“Last time we stepped on this pitch, [Western New England] gave us a pretty good shot right to the jaw, and we didn’t handle it very well,” said Wheeler. “We were expecting their best shot [Sunday]; they gave it to us, and I think we responded well….Penalty kicks can go either way, to be honest, but I think we had the momentum going into it, and certainly when you have Purdy, you feel pretty good about your chances.”

Wesleyan had improved to 3-0 all-time in NCAA tournament first-round games on Saturday with a 2-0 victory over St. Joseph’s College of Maine, which was making its first NCAA tournament appearance. Chris Kuehn ’13 scored his first career goal at 31:48—becoming the fifth different freshman this season to tally a goal—off a cross from Ian Waldron ’13. Kuehn, who had entered the game just five minutes earlier, took the pass along the left side of the box and flicked it off the end of his foot inside the left post to give Wesleyan the lead. Wesleyan extended its lead to 2-0 in the 72nd minute as Whipple scored his third goal of the year off a pass from Redpath.

The shutout against St. Joseph’s was Wesleyan’s 12th of the year, extending the school record. Purdy also stopped four shots to record his 10th shutout of 2009. Purdy’s 0.43 goals-against average and 90.6 save percentage lead the NESCAC; he also entered the weekend tied for third in Division III in save percentage and ranked fourth in GAA.

Wesleyan now stands 3-2-1 all-time in NCAA tournament play and 12-1-5 on the season. The Cardinals will travel to Messiah College in Grantham, Pa. this weekend for a Saturday night game against the University of Rochester, ranked eighth in Division III, while 13th-ranked Johns Hopkins University will take on defending national champion Messiah, the top team in Division III, in the other semifinal. The winners will meet Sunday evening at 6:00 with a trip to San Antonio for the NCAA Final Four on the line. The Cardinals took on Messiah in the 2005 tournament, falling 2-1 in overtime.

A year after a disappointing 5-8-2 season that ended with a 2-0 loss at Amherst in the first round of the NESCAC tournament, the Cardinals have added another impressive chapter to the Wesleyan soccer legacy and are poised to continue rewriting the record books this weekend.

“It’s the best feeling ever,” said tri-captain Jory Kahan ’10. “Half the guys can’t stop smiling. Last year was very disappointing, but guys are stepping up this year. It’s a total team effort.”

“We’re going to take it one game at a time,” he added. “All of us, we all believe.”