DENVER – The No. 3 seed University of Denver men's soccer program struck early and added to its lead in the minutes around the intermission to beat UMass 3-0 on Saturday afternoon in-front of another capacity crowd at the University of Denver Soccer Stadium.

Denver advances to the 2024 College Cup and the national semifinals to take on Vermont. The match will be broadcast on ESPNU, and the kickoff time will be announced later this weekend.

Scoring Summary
[3] Denver: Belloli 8' (Bassett), Wynne 43' (I. Smith, Welch), Ofunrein 50' (Akau, Kelly)
UMass:

Notes:

• 2361 was Saturday's attendance, a record crowd at the University of Denver Soccer Stadium.
• Denver is 124-39-32 since the start of the 2015 season, the sixth-most wins in the country since Jack and Sheila Weinberg Head Men's Soccer Coach Jamie Franks took over in 2015.
• The Pioneers will make their second trip to the College Cup, and their first in Cary.
• Denver has outscored opponents 35-9 in the middle 60 minutes of matches this year, including 2-0 today.
• The Pioneers are 107-22-19 at the University of Denver Soccer Stadium since it opened in 2009.
• Denver is 97-13-13 since Franks joined the staff in 2012 and 72-9-10 since Franks took over as head coach.
•  Jason Belloli headed home his first goal of the season and the fifth of his career to open the scoring on Saturday afternoon.
• Ronan Wynne scored his second goal of the season and the fourth of his career.
• Wynne is up to 10 points on the season.
• Oje Ofunrein scored his ninth goal of the season and the 22^nd of his career.
• Ofunrein moved to fifth on Denver's career goals list with 22
• Ofunrein now has 47 career points, good for eighth on Denver's career points list, passing Jarod Stigall.
• Sam Bassett, who already holds Denver's record for single season assists and careers assists, added another one to his tally on Saturday on the Belloli opener.
• Bassett now has 13 assists on the season and 26 in his career.
• Bassett entered the match third in the country in assists this season.
• Bassett's single-season point total grew to 29, tying him with Zach Bolden's 2013 season for third in Denver's single-season history.
• Bassett's career point total moved to 72, which is second on Denver's all-time list.
• Ian Welch made his first appearance since October 7 in the first half, and earned an assist on Wynne's goal to make it 2-0.
• Ian Smith earned his ninth assist of the season and the 20^th of his career.
• Smith moves into a tie for third in career assists with 20.
• Dylan Akau earned his fourth assist of the season and the 10^th of his career
• Keegan Kelly earned his third assist of his freshman season.
• Kelly has at least a point in five-straight matches.

First Half:

8' Ian Smith won a corner for the Pioneers in the opening 10 minutes after getting in behind the Minutemen defense. Sam Bassett took the set piece and played it to the run of Jason Belloli to the back post, who headed it from a yard out off the goalie and into the back of the net to open the scoring.
 

Belloli gets the party started in-front of a sold out crowd at the @UofDenver Soccer Stadium.#GoPios pic.twitter.com/wHXMylLFmF

— Denver MSoccer (@DU_MSoccer) December 7, 2024

13' Ian Smith got in behind the UMass backline on a feed from Bassett to setup a chance at a Denver second, but the UMass keeper came off his line well to stop Smith's quick shot from the corner of the box.

40' Aidan Kelly got the first shot on target for the visitors, a long-range header from outside the area that Isaac Nehme saved comfortably.

43' Ian Welch played it out wide to the left to kickstart Denver's second goal. Welch's ball fell to the run of Ian Smith who played it to the back-post run of Ronan Wynne, who headed it home and celebrated with another backflip after putting the Pioneers up 2-0.
 

HEADER ➡️ BACKFLIP 🤯#NCAASoccer x 🎥 ESPN+ / @DU_MSoccer pic.twitter.com/a1ZOgqY4L8

— NCAA Soccer (@NCAASoccer) December 7, 2024

Second Half:

47' The nation's second leading scorer had a free kick that UMass earned at the top of the box early in the half, but the attempt went into the standing room only supporters on top of Peter Barton.

50' Denver hit UMass for a third early in the second half. Keegan Kelly turned Denver over in the press and quickly got the ball to Dylan Akau. Akau took a couple touches towards the area before playing the ball back post to Oje Ofunrein, who knocked it into the empty net to put the Pios up 3-0.
 

3-Rock#GoPios pic.twitter.com/MGBjqkKzoD

— Denver MSoccer (@DU_MSoccer) December 7, 2024

70' Off a short-taken set-piece, Ben Smith had a crack from outside the box at a Denver fourth, but it whipped outside the far post and out for a goal kick.

72' Sam Bassett earned a free kick at the top of the box that was originally ruled to be a penalty kick, but then was correctly overturned after video review to be just outside the box. Bassett's free kick was well taken towards the back post, but was saved and pushed out wide.

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