CARY, NC — Tarik Panholzer scored in the opening minutes, Alexa Janjak finished with five saves and an assist and Marshall beat No. 1 seed Ohio State 1-0 on Friday night in the College Cup semifinals. .
No. 13 seed Marshall (15-1-7) will play unseeded Vermont — which beat Denver on penalty kicks in the other semifinal — in the championship game Monday (8 p.m., ESPN2, ESPN+).
Panholzer got behind the defense on the counter-attack and ran onto a long goal kick played by Janjak. Ohio State goalkeeper Max Trejo came off his line and collided with teammate Sigi Magnussen on the edge of the penalty area, and Panholzer headed it into the goal for a 1-0 lead in the seventh minute.
Ohio State (16-2-4) had a great chance in the opening minutes, with David Ajagbe’s header off a corner kick off the crossbar.
Marshall has made six consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, winning the national championship in 2020.
Martial’s Takahiro Fujita was carried off on a stretcher in the second half and was replaced by Aleksandar Vukovic.
Ohio State’s Donovan Williams came out with a leg injury about five minutes into the game and was replaced by Nick McHenry.
The Buckeyes were without Nathan Damian, who was shot off campus early Sunday morning in Columbus, Ohio, hours after helping the Buckeyes to a 3-0 win over Wake Forest in the quarterfinals. He is hospitalized and Cheered on the team Friday night from there.
Vermont 1, Denver 1
Max Murray scored the decisive goal in a 4-3 shootout as Vermont and Denver played to a 1-1 draw in overtime, and the Catamounts defeated the No. 3 seed Pioneers for their first Men’s College Cup in program history. Reached the finals.
Vermont (16-2-5), making its first appearance in the College Cup, also became just the third team in the past decade to defeat two top-four seeds in a tournament after also beating No. 2 Pittsburgh last weekend. became The Catamounts have won 10 NCAA Tournament games over the past three years, the most of any NCAA program.
Denver (15-4-4) was making its second appearance in the national semifinals, having previously lost to Wake Forest in overtime in 2016.
Vermont goalkeeper Niklas Hersig blocked Ben Smith’s shot up the middle with his trailing leg and Murray responded with a goal of his own for a 3-2 lead in the shootout. Denver defender Trevor Wright flashed a left-footed shot off the crossbar to send Vermont into the championship match.
Both teams entered the tournament having not allowed a single goal in the first half.
Denver attacking midfielder Sam Bassett scored his ninth goal of the season from distance in the 69th minute. Teammate Ian Smith saved the ball from going out of bounds on the end line and played it back to Bassett near the corner of the 18-yard box. Bassett calmly slotted it over Hersig and into the net on the opposite side.
Yanio Bazzini leveled it at one in the 84th minute with his 14th goal of the season. He got behind the defence, smothered a high pass from Nathan Simon and calmly slotted it into the back of the net.
It was Vermont’s 16th goal this season that came in the 83rd minute or later.
This report used information from The Associated Press.