Despite a rocky season, on Saturday the Kenyon men’s soccer team put on arguably its best performance of the year, handily dispatching Ohio Wesleyan University 4-0 and securing a spot in the NCAC Tournament. Then, on Wednesday, Kenyon took on No. 1 seed DePauw University and fell 3-2, most likely marking the end of the 2025 season.
With favorable results earlier in the day in other NCAC games, the match between the Owls and the Bishops had incredibly high stakes for both teams: Win, and you qualify for the NCAC Tournament; lose, and your season is over. After losing to the Bishops 3-0 last year, the Owls knew they had their work cut out for them. “We know the history between Kenyon and OWU and that this was a big rivalry game,” Danny Kankam ’29 wrote in an email to the Collegian. “Knowing the season [was] on the line added a bit of pressure, it also gave us our motivation to give everything we have until the final whistle blows.” Andrew Adams ’28, the lone Kenyon outfield player to play the full 90 minutes, added in an email: “Our mentality was solely focused on us. … We all had 100% confidence in ourselves to get the result; we knew we just had to play our game and it would come.”
If Kenyon was nervous, the players didn’t show it: The Owls put on a scintillating show under the warm November sun, thoroughly outclassing a Bishops team that, at times, felt like a passive spectator. Kankam, one of three first years to start the match for Kenyon, opened the scoring in the 17th minute. Played in by an incisive through ball from Isaac Cortez ’26, Kankam raced toward goal from the right wing, cut inside onto his left foot, and then back onto his right, blasting the ball into the top corner of the net from close range. Kenyon doubled its lead in the 29th minute through Cortez, who capitalized on a loose ball in the box from a throw-in to poke home his third goal in four matches. The Owls entered halftime with a secure 2-0 lead.
In the second half, Kenyon controlled much of the possession. Attackers Lucas de Alarcon ’28 and Ethan Castaneda ’28, although neither found the back of the net, hounded the Bishops and continuously threatened throughout the afternoon. The Owls tacked on another insurance goal in the 56th minute thanks to top scorer Jack Commandeur ’29, who opportunistically tapped in Justin Buchwalter ’28’s rebounded shot attempt. The final nail in the coffin came from Joaquin Sanchez-Korenfeld ’26. On the counter-attack, Emmett Brown ’28 sent a long ball for the veteran Sanchez-Korenfeld to chase, who ultimately slotted it home to cap off a perfect day for Kenyon.
Goalkeeper Dominic Pratt ’28 and the shorthanded Kenyon back line — Adams, normally a central midfielder, played in defense the entire match — kept their third clean sheet in four matches. Although Pratt was not called upon often, he came up with a series of spectacular saves when he was needed.
Earlier this month, the Owls tied 1-1 against the DePauw Tigers, the tournament’s No. 1 seed and the reigning champions. Before taking on DePauw on Wednesday, Adams and Kankam looked ahead to the match and reflected on the season. “We know they are a hardworking team that are capable of causing us some problems, but if we are focused and minimize mistakes, I think we can get the job done,” Adams said. Kankam agreed. “If we keep playing how we play offensively, the chances will come,” the first year said.
On Wednesday, the Owls started on the back foot almost immediately. Less than one minute in, the Tigers opened the scoring, stunning a Kenyon team that was focused on “minimizing mistakes.” With the gameplan thrown out the window, Kenyon pressed up the field, searching for an equalizer. In the 14th minute, they did just that, as Commandeur headed a shot home from Cortez’s cross. Kenyon jumped out to a 2-1 lead 20 minutes later. Brown pounced on a lax DePauw defense that cheaply gave the ball away. From there, Brown coolly slotted the ball into the bottom corner, giving the Owls their first lead. But three minutes later, Kenyon gave away a penalty kick, as Grant Blake ’29 brought down a Tigers forward in the box. DePauw converted, sending the teams tied at 2-2 into the break.
Although the first half saw four goals, a lone second-half goal was ultimately the deciding factor. DePauw, with a set piece in a dangerous area, executed a perfect move straight from the training ground and scored the go-ahead goal. After DePauw’s 65th minute goal, Kenyon streamed forward, launching attack after attack in hopes of keeping its season alive. The Owls came agonizingly close — Commandeur’s header in the 85th minute rattled off the post — but could not find the back of the net, falling 3-2. As time ran out, members of the team collapsed to the turf; the season was over.
“It’s been a season of ups and downs,” Adams wrote, “but I’m extremely proud of how we have responded to adversity up to this point.”
The team, which finished with a 7-3-7 (3-2-3 NCAC) regular-season record, will return in 2026 looking to capture its first NCAC regular-season title since 2023.