BRUNSWICK, ME – On one side, the top-seeded and most dominant team in the league. On the other, a hot-handed underdog with a flair for the dramatic. On the line, a berth to the conference championship game. What more could a fan of college soccer, or any sport for that matter, ask for?

On a chilly and overcast Saturday morning in Brunswick, Maine, Wesleyan men’s soccer kicked off the NESCAC semifinals versus Bowdoin College in what promised to be a trying match. With an overall record of 12-1-2, Bowdoin was ranked fifth nationally and first in New England among Division III schools. Additionally, as they were first in NESCAC, they had won the privilege of playing host to the final two rounds of the conference tournament.

Yet while Wesleyan came into the day with a notably less auspicious record of 8-7, they had reason to hope. Making the playoffs as the seventh seed with an overtime win over Connecticut College on the last day of the regular season, the Cardinals traveled to Williamstown, Mass. two days later to face off against second seed Williams in the quarterfinals. While the Ephs were ranked tenth nationally with a record of 11-1-2, this did not faze the Cards as they proceeded to stun the Ephs with their second overtime victory of the weekend, a 2-1 comeback effort in which they trailed 1-0 until the 82nd minute. A rocky regular season left behind, it appeared for Wesleyan that anything was possible.

As have might been expected, Wesleyan left the gate with guns blazing versus Bowdoin. The Cardinals took the first four shots of the contest, with the fourth ending up in the back of the Polar Bear net. From the right side of the box Ian Waldron ’13 fed Will Mithoefer ’12, who tapped the ball inside the near post. Wesleyan exhibited a stellar possession game and exercised a controlled offense, and as the clock ticked down on the remainder of the first half the feeling of infinite possibility seemed to draw closer to becoming an affirmation.

However, with a mere 38 seconds left in the stanza, Bowdoin would right their ship. Forward Michael Gale gained possession outside the Wesleyan box and ripped a shot that deflected off a defender and into the right side of the net, tying the game at 1-1 heading into the break.

As the second half commenced, Bowdoin tweaked their formation by putting five men at midfield. With less space for short passes, Wesleyan’s offense began to yield more turnovers and the Polar Bears took advantage. Most of the subsequent minutes were played on Wesleyan’s defensive end, and in the 67th minute Bowdoin player Call Nichols ’12 launched a penalty kick awarded off of a Cardinal handball into the upper right corner of the goal.

Wesleyan regrouped and put together several promising possessions, one of which resulted in the disallowing of a would-be goal due to another handball, this time inside Bowdoin’s box. However, it proved to be too late, as the home team held on for the victory.

With the defeat, Wesleyan ends their season with an overall record of 8-8. While ultimately the team struggled to put two good halves together for much of the fall, just as was the case on Saturday, 2010 was an undeniably exciting year for Cardinal soccer. Of the 16 games played, an unprecedented 15 were decided by one point, the only exception coming in a 3-0 victory over Western Connecticut. In the end, Wesleyan came together as a team for some late-season fireworks before losing to a worthy opponent.