After a 14-game winning streak and taking the Region 19 Championships, Mercer’s men’s soccer team ended their second Nationals game in Huntsville, Alabama losing 2-1 to Northeast Community College on November 18.
Alou Gamby, sophomore forward from Lansdale, PA in home game vs. Cecil College on October 4, 2024. MCCC won 5-1. PHOTO COURTESY MCCC
The college’s new Athletic Director, Eric Grundman, says, “Northeastern was the number one team in the country and the eventual National Champion. We led them and lost [the final] game in overtime.”
Mercer lost the game due to two free penalty kicks, one that sent the game into overtime, and another that won the game.
Vikings fans said the penalty-kick calls from the referees were questionable, especially the second call as it was made in the middle of the field when the ball was on the sideline near the linesman.
Head Coach of fifteen years, Widmarc Dalce says, “It’s gonna stay in me for a long time. [Northeast] had to earn it on a set piece otherwise they had nothing else because their game plan wasn’t working. Just two questionable calls by the referees.”
One person who got to see the team on its way to the Championships is MCCC World Languages Professor Daniel D’Arpa. He said several of his students who are on the soccer team invited him to a game against Schoolcraft College on November 8.
He says, “They invited me. I thought I can’t say no to that. You know? If a student asks me to come watch, I’m going to support them. And especially for my international students, I feel that they don’t have their family support…And so if I can, if I can be a face out there, yeah, I’m happy to go. So was, I was honored and glad to be invited.”
The Vikings beat Schoolcraft in the District Championship with a score of 4-1 which qualified them for the nationals.
But after a season of wins, the Vikings found themselves in a challenging new position up against tough odds.
Dalce, says, “They call our bracket the bracket of death.”
Mercer, which was ranked sixteenth in the NJCAA DII Men’s National Soccer Rankings, was paired up against third-ranked Phoenix College and the number-one-ranked Northeast Community College.
Joao Lourenco, a sophomore offensive striker from Brazil says, “[We were in] one of the hardest groups. All our players starting are fast and strong and that’s important for soccer, but also very technical and I think we were more technical than the other teams.” He continues, “I think if we [had been able to] rest for one day [between games] we would beat them and probably be champions.”
Including Lourenco from Brazil approximately 18 nations are represented on the team this season, including Coach Dalce, who came to play for Mercer himself in 1996 from Haiti, and the assistant coaches, all of whom are former Mercer players Dalce coached.
Dylan Maher, Midfielder Winger from Wicklow, Ireland, says “I feel like we all gelled very quick together and we kind of became more like a family than friends.”
Goalkeeper captain Ignacio Pocheco of Argentina says of the team, “Being here we are all in Mercer. We are all the same and we are here for a reason. I try to give my best and give what I learned back home to just put it in the field and help my teammates to get better and help them in the field as well.”
The team’s success has not gone overlooked as Coach Dalce was voted Region 19 Coach of the year for the seventh time in his career according to the NJCAA) Region 19 Website.
Maher says of his coach’s honor, “It was a good year all around and I think he deserved it.”
Coach Dalce says, “All this work was just collective effort from the players and the coaching staff just work with me and believe in my leadership to just make this happen, it’s one of the special seasons I can say I’ve had at Mercer for 15 years. This is a special team. I’m proud of them.”
