Phil D’Adderio (#8) moves the ball up field during 1989 NCAA Championship game.
On Nov. 18, 1989, Elizabethtown College defeated Greensboro College by a 2-0 score to win the NCAA Division III Men’s Soccer Championship. The victory marked the program’s first NCAA title in history and capped off a historic season for the Blue Jays who tallied a 24-3 record.
Played on the team’s home field in front of more than 2,500 dedicated fans, including more than 200 alumni who returned to campus, the game featured a brief snow shower and frigid temperatures. Following 78 minutes of scoreless action, senior forward Mark Pratzner notched the game’s first score. Less than five minutes later, Pratzner took a pass from Robbie Martin and iced the content with his second goal of the day.
The National Championship win defied expectations for a team that had lost eight starters from the previous season’s playoff team.
“This was an unbelievable ending to our season,” legendary Elizabethtown College Men’s Soccer Head Coach, Arthur “Skip” Roderick ’75 said. “We seemed to start slowly but just kept getting better. But I don’t think anybody would have thought we’d win it all this year.”
The 1989 team was enshrined among the all-time greats at the College when they were inducted into Etown’s Ira R. Herr Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999.
Throughout Elizabethtown College’s 125th anniversary year, follow along as we share 125 compelling stories about the College’s defining moments, alumni stories, and fun facts since our founding in 1899 at etown.edu.