The Case Western Reserve University men's soccer team ended its 2025 season in heartbreaking fashion, losing 1-0 to Carnegie Mellon University on a 90th minute goal on Saturday evening at the CMU Soccer Field in Pittsburgh.
The Spartans concluded the season with a record of 7-5-5 and a mark of 1-4-2 in University Athletic Association contests. The Tartans ended their season at 9-4-5 and 2-3-2 in UAA play.
Stats and Standouts
- Senior goalkeeper Bradley Winter made six saves in his final start for the Spartans
- Winter, senior defender Phillip Washington, sophomore defender Philip Vlastaris, and first-year defender Alex Eby played the full 90 minutes on the pitch
- Sophomore Mitchell Fein, senior Camden Larson, and junior Cameron Thayer each had a team-high two shots in the game
- CMU had a 13-9 edge in shots and 7-5 advantage in shots on goal, though the teams both had eight attempts in the second half
- CWRU did not attempt a corner kick in the first 45 minutes but had seven set piece opportunities in the second period
- The game featured a combined 23 fouls and five yellow cards
First Half
- CMU had early chances, earning four corner kicks in the first 15 minutes of play
- The Tartans had three shots, one that was saved, one that was blocked, and one that went high
- Larson had the Spartans' first attempt on goal in the 16th minute
- In the waning seconds of the half, Winter saved a shot to send the teams into the break tied at zero
Second Half
- The hosts had four chances in the first 10 minutes of second stanza with Winter saving one and three going wide
- Larson had a shot blocked off a corner kick in the 62nd minute, and Fein's attempt on the following corner was saved
- The Spartans earned five corner kicks from the 78th minute to the 83rd minute, keeping the pressure on the CMU defense
- However, the team attempted just two shots, one that was saved and one that was blocked
- With 92 seconds left, senior McLaren Baggett took a shot near the goal that did not beat the CMU goalkeeper
- The Tartans scored on a chaotic last-minute attempt as Justin Fung found the back of the net with 36 seconds remaining in the game
Spartan Notes
- The Spartans dropped to 9-19-3 against CMU since 1994, losing their first game to the Tartans in four years
- CWRU placed eighth in the University Athletic Association, and CMU finished fifth in the league
- Winter, Washington, Larson, Baggett, Ben Collier, and Stephen Vilardo played in their final games for Case Western Reserve
- Winter finished his career with a 20-12-15 overall record, shutting out a program-record 22 opponents and making 127 saves in 4252:55
- Larson started 64 games during his career, tied for the ninth most in program history, making 66 appearances for CWRU
- Washington started the final 33 games of his career, making 38 appearances in four seasons
- Winter, Eby, Washington, and Larson were the four Spartans to start all 17 games in 2025, with Fein, Vilardo, junior Ohta Kamiya, sophomore Amir Awais, junior Sean Wilson, and sophomore Ashton McNally each appearing in every game