AMHERST – The UMass men’s soccer team took care of business during its NCAA tournament first-round game against Evansville on Thursday.

The Minutemen notched a 2-1 victory on a rain-soaked Rudd Field.

Alec Hughes and Andrew Ortiz netted goals for UMass (11-3-5) while goalkeeper Alex Geczy turned aside two of the Aces’ three shots on goal.

The Minutemen led 2-0 with about 30 minutes left to play, but Evansville cut their lead in half with a strike at 70:52.

UMass fought off the Aces’ late attack, which included a corner-kick with a minute to go, to advance to the second round of the NCAA tournament. The club will travel to play at No. 6 Penn on Sunday at 5 p.m. for a spot in the Sweet 16.

“I'm happy and relieved,” Minutemen head coach Fran O’Leary said. “We played a very good team, a really well-coached team. All credit to Evansville. We followed them, they came back against really good teams and we talked about it at halftime that they're a resilient, well-coached group and they were going to come back at us.”

Evansville won the Missouri Valley Conference title to reach the NCAA Tournament. The Aces beat Bowling Green, 3-2 in overtime in the MVC championship.

The Minutemen scored first in Thursday’s game on a perfectly-placed shot from Hughes on a free kick at 20:17. Oliver Akintade drew the chance on an aggressive rush to the Evansville net, but was taken down just outside the box on the left side, about 10 yards from the end line.

Hughes proceeded to bend the ball into the top right corner on a rocket shot Aces goalie Michal Mroz had no chance on. Hughes’ tally counted as the graduate student’s 15th of the season.

“Alec will always score goals, but what impressed me today was his attitude from the beginning,” O’Leary said. “His work ethic, his mentality was superb. You could see he wanted to carry the team today and that's an attitude we'll need to take into the next game. Alec will always score goals, but today the level of physicality and commitment he played with was second to none.”

The Minutemen poured the pressure on the rest of the half and could have added a couple more goals if not for Mroz’s stellar play (nine total saves) in the Aces net. The hosts finished the 45-minute frame with a 11-3 edge in shots.

Evansville came out desperate in the second half, yet it was UMass that scored the eventual game-winner on Ortiz’s fifth tally of the season at 59:19. Akintade was involved once again, this time setting up Ortiz with a cross pass after maneuvering around a handful of Aces defenders.

"He's a very good player. He's a very, very good player,” O’Leary said of Akintade. “We were fortunate to get him from a Division 3 program, there's a lot of very good players playing Division 3 college soccer. He was superb today. He won the free-kick for the first goal and then he obviously got an assist on the second so big contributions from him today.”

Akintade starred for Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Mich. for four years before transferring to UMass this fall.

With time ticking away in their season, the Aces controlled the play the remainder of the game, which translated into Samuel Awusu’s goal to make it 2-1. Awusu’s shot changed direction off a Minuteman defender and spun sideways off the far-post and into the net.

Evansville followed with five of the contest’s final eight shots, but couldn’t convert as UMass picked up its first win in the NCAA tournament since 2007.

“[Hughes’] goal was a terrific individual effort and [Akintade] carved through them and Ortiz made a late run for a cutback and two terrific goals,” O’Leary said. “We held on at the end and credit to them, they kept coming at us. The teams in the NCAA [tourney] are good teams and they proved it today, but I'd like to think that we proved we're a good team too."