WORCESTER -- Francesco Valagussa (Arlington, MA), Tora Ito (Hopkinton, MA) and Franco Bazzini(Buenos Aires, Argentina) successfully converted penalties and goalkeeper Ryan Martin (Douglas, MA) made a pair of saves during the PKs as the WPI Men's Soccer team captured the NEWMAC Tournament following a 1-1 extra time draw and prevailing 3-2 on penalties.  
 
The Engineers are now undefeated in their last 12 matches (8-0-4) and earn the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships, which begins next weekend. WPI, which also captured the 2017 conference tournament title on PKs, is now 9-3-7 on the season and was fourth in the most recent NCAA Division III Region II rankings and receiving votes in the latest United Soccer Coaches National Top 25.  
 
Babson, which was ranked first in latest Region II ranking and 15th nationally, was denied its 11th overall NEWMAC Tournament crown and the chance to be the first team in men's soccer conference history to secure four straight postseason titles.   The Beavers are now 11-3-7 overall and await word if they receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.  Selections will be announced at 2pm Monday on NCAA.com.
 
The visitors struck first, jumping ahead 1-0 in the 25th minute.  Ryan Kim (San Ramon, CA) placed a free kick from 40 yards out into the box, where it bounced around and was collected by Joseph Cardaropoli (Longmeadow, MA). The senior wiggled through traffic and sent a shot in on the right side for his first goal of the year at 25:04.
 
WPI got the equalizer about 15 minutes into the second half. Tournament Most Outstanding Player Aaron Vaz (Medford, MA) received a pass from Brennan Garcia Hilger (Los Angeles, CA) and dribbled around a defender and drilled a shot past goalie at 59:25.  It was the senior's fifth goal of 2023 and he netted both of the Crimson and Gray's goals during the postseason, including the only tally in the Engineers' 1-0 semifinal victory over Coast Guard.
 
The two overtime sessions were played much more cautiously than the 90 minutes of regulation, which saw 35 total shots (22-13 WPI).  Both teams attempted a shot in the first 10 minutes of extra time and the Engineers were credited with all three shots in the second extra frame. 
 
Both teams missed in the first round PKs with Babson goalkeeper Walker White (Coral Gables, FL) and Martin coming up with diving saves.  The two teams traded makes over the next two rounds with Valagussa and Ito converting for WPI and Joao Araujo (Boca Raton, FL) and Louis Gazo (Colchester, VT) nailing Babson's tries.   Bazzini put WPI ahead 3-2 by connecting on his bid in the fourth round before Martin collected his second stop of PK.  The Boynton Hillers had a chance to win on its shot in the fifth round, but the sailed over the crossbar but Babson's try to force extra PKs also went over the bar, sending the WPI players into a frenzy and crowning the Engineers as NEWMAC Tournament champions for the first time since 2017.