Michigan men's soccer downs Wright State on PKs, advances to NCAA third round

Goalkeeper Owen Finnerty only had to be right once, and because of the freshman's crucial shootout save, Michigan men's soccer team is advancing to the NCAA Tournament third round.

Finnerty (Walled Lake/Detroit Catholic Central) pawed away Wright State's third spot kick by Harvey Slade in the shootout session won by UM 5-4 after the second-round match ended in a 0-0 stalemate Sunday at U-M Soccer Stadium.

Slade attempted to put his shot to the left side of the net, but the goalkeeper correctly dove to snuff it out. Michigan (11-4-6) advances to play No. 4 Wake Forest (13-4-2), which defeated defending champion Maryland 3-0 Sunday in its second-round match. Michigan plays at Wake Forest on Sunday. The kickoff time is yet to be announced. 

Nebojsa Popovic, Austin Swiech, Derick Broche, Jack Hallahan and Marc Ybarra (Ann Arbor Skyline) converted spot kicks for UM. Ids Hannema, Deri Corfe, Stefan Rokvic and Jackson Dietrich were good from the penalty spot for Wright State (11-8-3).

Finnerty, who played this summer for Detroit City FC, also guessed correctly on Corfe's low drive to the right side but the ball went underneath him. He finished with three saves.

Broche had a goal in the second overtime session waived off due to an offside. Michigan carried the attack in the final minutes of the extra session but couldn't get the crucial goal.

The shootout win was also a measure of redemption for Michigan, which fell to No. 8 Indiana in the Big Ten championship on spot kicks last week.