Roos Shut Out #3 Delaware, Advance to Fourth-Straight Summit Title Game

Sunday, November 9

Kansas City, Mo.

5:00 PM

Kansas City

11-2-5, 4-1-1

Delaware

12-2-3, 3-1-2

Delaware

Kansas City

Photo by: Francie Wilson

Roos Shut Out #3 Delaware, Advance to Fourth-Straight Summit Title Game

11/9/2025 8:16:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Box Score Highlights Muttitt/Popow/Francou Postgame Photo Gallery

Marc Popow tallied a career-high seven saves, blanking the nation's top scoring offense

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The standard is set. Kansas City Men's Soccer is on to play in the Summit League title game for the fourth-straight season, tied for the second-longest streak of championship game appearances in conference history. Tonight, the Roos were able to advance past #3 Delaware, 2-0, shutting out the nation's top scoring offense just four days after a 3-3 draw against the same Blue Hens side in the regular season finale. Marc Popow was a stalwart in goal, making a career-high seven saves and propelling the Roos to a semifinal victory and the longest unbeaten streak in program history.

Kansas City's championship test will come against a familiar foe as the Roos will take on top-seeded Denver in the title game for the third-straight season. Denver was victorious in the teams' 2023 championship meeting and the Roos got their revenge in 2024. The rubber match will take place on Saturday, Nov. 19 in Denver as KC looks to avenge its lone loss of the Summit League season.

Delaware applied pressure in the early going, putting three shots on goal in the first 13 minutes. Popow was there to save all three with one of his best saves on the year coming in the 13th. A cross was volleyed towards goal by UD's Charles Giordano, heading for the left side-netting. The freshman keeper dove to his right, slapping the ball away from the goal mouth and watching as the follow-up shot from Richard Monath trickled out of bounds. He remained solid through the entire game, finishing with the sixth-most saves by a Summit League keeper in a game this season and making many other plays that did not show up on the stat sheet.

The Roos were able to break the game open in the 39th minute with defender Bryson Gosch sparking the attack. Gosch took the ball from the top of the box and pushed forward, breaking past the first line of defenders and making his way near midfield. He timed his through pass with precision, finding a streaking Joackim Betina up the right side. Betina had numbers moving forward, joined by Wade Muttitt and Shotaro Kodama with just two of the Delaware back line to defend. The cross went to Muttitt, who took one touch on the ball and drew UD's Jojo Elliott forward, slotting the ball past him for his fourth goal of the season.

KC controlled the pace the rest of the way, out-shooting Delaware 9-5 in the second half. The game was finally put out of reach in the 87th minute when Jeremy Francou took a pass from Mathias Baucher at midfield and did the rest of the work himself, moving to ninth in the program single-season record books with his team-leading ninth goal of the year. Francou finished the game with a team-high five shots, placing three on frame.

The Roos move to 11-2-5 on the season and are 7-0-1 in their last eight games, standing alone as the longest unbeaten streak in program history. Currently ranked 25th in the United Soccer Coaches' Top 25 poll, the win moved Kansas City up to 13th in the national RPI rankings, according to RPI Update.