KEY MOMENTS

• Zapata set the tone early in the 19th minute. Senior Alejo Caceres (Cordóba, Argentina) sent a ball into the box from the right flank. Iriarte headed it down back out to the top of the 18 where Zapata drilled a low shot that found the back of the net.
• SNHU struck again just 48 seconds later when freshman Gabi Barroso (A Coruña, Spain) chased down a ball toward the left corner, spinning and hitting it back across his body, delivering it right to the top of the box where graduate student Dani Gonzalez (Llanera, Spain) fired it top shelf to double the lead.
• The Penmen scored a back-breaker of a goal just 19 seconds before halftime, with Zapata and graduate student Martin Fuentes (Pamplona, Spain) going 2-on-1 with the goalkeeper. Zapata dished it from left to right, with Fuentes finishing it off at the right post.

NOTES

• Southern New Hampshire, ranked sixth in the United Soccer Coaches Division II Top 25, has won 13 of its last 15, including 10 of 11 and three straight.
• Gannon, ranked No. 14 in the national poll, had its 15-match unbeaten (13-0-2) and 11-game winning streaks snapped. The Golden Knights, who averaged 3.73 goals per game during their unbeaten streak, were kept off the scoreboard for just the second time all season and first since Sept. 7 at East Stroudsburg University (4-0).
• SNHU improves to 24-17-7 (.573) in 25 all-time NCAA Championship appearances, including 1-0 against Gannon. The Penmen advance to the national semifinals for the fourth time in program history and first since its National Championship season of 2013.
• The Penmen are 3-0-0 in the 2025 NCAA postseason and have outscored opponents, 8-0. It is the first time in program history they have pitched three shutouts in their first three games of the NCAA tournament. Only one time has SNHU completed an NCAA postseason without allowing a goal. That was back in 2015 when it outscored two opponents, 3-0, in a 1-0-1 tourney that ended on penalty kicks.
• With the NCAA re-seeding the final four in Colorado Springs, the Penmen earned the No. 2 seed and will take on third-seeded Midwestern State University for the first time in program history. The Mustangs are currently riding a nine-game winning streak, powered by a defensive unit that has seven shutouts and allowed just three goals during the stretch.
• The Penmen outshot the Golden Knights, 21-8, including 14-1 in shots on target.
• Graduate student Alvaro Garcia (Castelldefels, Spain) stopped the only shot he faced for his eighth clean sheet of the season and third-in-a-row. Garcia and the Penmen extend their shutout streak to 298:53.
• The Penmen improve to 1-1-0 all-time against Gannon. The Golden Knights defeated then-New Hampshire College, 1-0, on a neutral pitch in Rochester, Mich., on Sept. 20, 1986 in the first meeting.
• Zapata's goal was his third of the season and 12th of his career. He now has a goal in three straight games he has suited up in.
• Iriarte scored for the second time in his first season with the Penmen.
• Gonzalez' seventh goal of the season is the 10th of his Penmen career. He has now scored in back-to-back matches and has four goals over the last five contests.
• Fuentes' second goal of the NCAA postseason is his 11th of the season and 18th of his two-year SNHU career.
• Sophomore Gabriel Castro (León, Spain) scored for the sixth time this season. He now has nine career goals.
• SNHU is 162-41-29 (.761) over its last 232 matches dating back to the beginning of the 2013 National Championship season.
• The Penmen improve to 110-16-18 (.826) over their last 144 contests at home, including 48-9-11 (.787) at Ouellette Stadium. SNHU is now 19-2-3 (.854) at home over its last two seasons and is unbeaten in 18 of its last 19 at Ouellette (15-1-3), which includes a 12-1-1 mark this season.

UP NEXT

• The second-seeded Penmen travel to Colorado Springs and take on third-seeded Midwestern State at the NCAA Championship semifinals at Weidener Field