The Denver men’s soccer team finished their regular season on Saturday with a 2-0 win over Kansas City. Denver put on a strong performance for Senior Day, maintaining their undefeated record in Summit League conference play (7-0-1). They improved to an 11-2-4 overall record on the season.
Denver improves their all-time home record at the DU Soccer Stadium to 87-10-12, out-shooting the Roos 14-9 in total and 5-2 in shots on net.
The game marked an impressive stat for sophomore goalkeeper Isaac Nehme, who captured his sixth shutout in a row. Nehme was recently named the Summit League Peak Performer of the Month, but said that accolades aren’t as important to him as the team’s success,
“It’s a nice pat on the back, but that isn’t important to me. It’s just an accolade,” he said. “That’s not what I’m really chasing. We just want to keep winning and putting up clean sheets. I think those awards should go to my back line, they make my job easier.”
Nehme finished the regular season with eleven total shutouts, which is good for third all-time in a single season in program history. He also moved into a tie for second place all-time in career shutouts in program history with twenty-one.
Graduate midfielder Aidan O’Toole was the other record-setter on the day, playing in his 84th career game, the most games played in program history. “A O” put on a show in what might be one of his last home games, scoring his third goal of the season.
“Considering this could be one of our last home games, it was nice to score in front of the crowd, in front of all my friends and family and all the coaches who have helped me get through everything here,” he said. “I mean, breaking the record is awesome, but obviously the focus is on that next game. Everyone here has helped to put me in that sport, so I can’t thank everyone else enough.”
Head Coach Jamie Franks has had nothing but success since taking over as head coach in 2015, improving his overall record to 62-8-9 with Saturday’s win. He and the team are ready to get back and compete on the biggest stage of the season, the NCAA tournament.
“It’s taken us a long time to get back here,” he said. “I thought we played really well in the NCAA tournament last year, we outplayed Duke, but didn’t get the result we wanted. It’s been a long hill to climb, so for us, we’re just focused on one game at a time, and getting the result we want in the semifinal.”
Going into the Summit League tournament with momentum, the team is looking to keep the good play up.
“We’re confident,” said Nehme. “We don’t feel like we’ve played to our full potential; there’s still room for growth. We just gotta keep watching film and getting better, and hopefully we can start next week hot.”
“We feel really good,” said O’Toole. “Our focus needs to stay on playing every play and that’ll get us to where we want to be. If we play on the front foot, it allows us to play at the best of our abilities. We have to stay focused on the goal and not get ahead of ourselves, we still have two more games to play this season.”
Seniors Ruaridh Fraser and Liam Fitzgerald were honored after the match. The team lined up to mob their seniors as they walked down the line. Both seniors were given framed game jerseys with their respective numbers.
The Crimson and Gold take on Kansas City again this Thursday in Tulsa, Oklahoma for the semifinal of the Summit League Tournament. The game will be streamed live at 2 P.M. MT on the Summit League Network.
