2011 Season Review
2011 Swarthmore Men's Soccer (13-6-1, 6th CC)
The men’s soccer seniors wrapped up one of the most successful four-year runs in program history by capturing the ECAC South Region championship with a 1-0 (2OT) victory over Medaille College. Fittingly, it was senior captain Micah Rose that scored the game-winning goal, as his curving ball off a free kick in the104th minute hit the far post and went into the back of the net. With the win, the nine seniors finished their Garnet career with two Centennial Conference championships (2008, 2010), three NCAA playoff appearances (2008, 2009, 2010) an ECAC South Region Championship (2011) and 62 victories.
Two seniors in particular – Rose and goalkeeper David D’Annunzio ‘12 – left their mark with spectacular final seasons. Rose became the first player in program history to make the All-Centennial Conference First Team three times in a career. D’Annunzio, an All-Centennial Conference Second Team selection, finished his career with a program-record 29 shutouts. D’Annunzio surpassed Andrew Cavenagh’s '91 previous record of 25 clean sheets with a shutout of Manhattanville on October 5. Rose and D’Annunzio were also honored for their performance off the field as each was named to the Capital One/CoSida Academic All-District IV First Team. Rounding out All-Centennial selections for the team were David Sterngold ’12 (second team), Noah Sterngold ’14 (second team), Fabian Castro ’12 (second team) and Kieran Reichert ’13 (honorable mention).
During the regular season, Swarthmore appeared poised to repeat as Centennial champions and reach its fourth-consecutive NCAA Tournament, but an unexpected late-season slide caused the squad to miss the Centennial Conference playoffs altogether. Despite the obvious disappointment, the team rallied during the ECAC Tournament, defeating Frostburg State, Alvernia and Medaille to win the competition.
