It was far from an avalanche of upsets in the second round, but some surprises were sprung nonetheless.

Five of the 16 teams to advance in the NCAA tournament third round on Sunday were unseeded as San Diego, Syracuse, Northwestern, Coastal Carolina and Fairleigh Dickinson all moved on by winning on the road.

While Fairleigh Dickinson’s 2-1 win over Saint Louis was a definite shock to the system – Jack McIvey providing the winning goal in overtime – Syracuse continued to enjoy life in the tournament. After all, the Orange are in the third round of the tourney for the first time ever after Louis Clark’s golden goal in overtime, securing a 3-2 win over No. 14 seed VCU.

The highest seed to lose was UCLA, getting trounced 5-2 at home against San Diego. Missing senior center back Matt Wiet, the Bruins defense was cut to pieces, conceding four goals after the break to see their season snuffed out early.

Other top seeds had a tough time advancing, including No. 2 Maryland. The Terps saw Brown find the back of the net first, before junior forward Patrick Mullins rose to the rescue once again, scoring an equalizer from distance to tie things at 1-1 before the break. With the game on the cusp of overtime, Dan Metzger found the back of the net for the first time since August 31 to keep the Terps moving along.

Clutch performers:

Only one goalkeeper could make the TopDrawerSoccer.com Team of the Week, but a number of shot stoppers put in match-winning performances in the second round. North Carolina senior Scott Goodwin stopped three penalty kicks as the defending national champions survived in a shootout against UMBC after a 0-0 draw. The goalie has a perfect 6-0 record all-time in penalties.

Also making the saves to keep his side in it was Syracuse ‘keeper Alex Bono. His eight saves kept the score tied at 2-2 through the game’s first 90 minutes plus overtime, as he faced a total of 16 shots, 10 of which were on frame in the win against VCU.

His Georgetown team was the favorite against last year’s national runners up Charlotte, but center back Tommy Muller didn’t put a foot wrong in his team’s 1-0 win. The defender won everything in the year, and kept his nerve at the back through a close game.

It was a much closer game than the score indicates, but Michael Calderone’s one goal, two assist performance for No. 13 seed New Mexico lifted the home side to a 3-1 win against Virginia.

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