UNH men's soccer players celebrate Wednesday's America East semis win in Durham. (Courtesy photo by China Wong/UNH Athletics)

DURHAM – Graduate student Johann von Knebel (Hamburg, Germany) scored the game-winning goal and added two assists as the No. 6 nationally-ranked and No. 1 seed University of New Hampshire men’s soccer team defeated No. 5 seed UMBC, 4-0, on Wednesday night at Wildcat Stadium in the America East Semifinals before a crowd of 2,455.

With the win, UNH is heading to its fourth consecutive America East Finals at Wildcat, Nov. 14 at 2 p.m. on AE.TV.

The Wildcats are looking to capture their fourth straight championship. The finals will be a rematch of last season’s when UNH defeated UVM, 2-0, on April 17, 2021.

UNH is just one of two teams that remain undefeated in the nation along with No. 8 St. Louis who holds a record of 13-0-3. The Wildcats have outscored the opposition 43-7 this year and have posted 11 shutouts. UNH’s .944 winning percentage leads the nation and is the best in program history.

The Wildcats took an early 1-0 lead in the fourth minute (3:26) of the game when von Knebel rocketed a shot into the top right corner of the goal with an assist from junior Rory O’Driscoll (Minneapolis, Minn.).

UNH extended its lead over UMBC in the 32nd minute (31:10) as graduate student Paul Mayer (Strasbourg, France) curled the ball around Quantrell Jones into the bottom left corner of the net after a pass from von Knebel.

O’Driscoll posted another goal for the Wildcats in the 53rd minute (52:27) as he launched the ball cross net and into the right corner of the goal with an assist from Bennett.

With another assist from von Knebel, graduate student Linus Fallberg (Jonkoping, Sweden) fired a shot in the bottom left corner of the net from 20 yards out in the 64th minute (63:58) and increased UNH’s lead to 4-0.

Tickets for Sunday’s finals are available on UNHWildcats.com.