When the St. Thomas men’s soccer team plays, it boasts a wide array of characters. There are forwards who run around the field like raging bulls, fifth-year defenders whose imposing presence on the pitch assures a sense of composure and a slew of other striking personalities.

However, the hero in the Tommies’ run to the Final Four has been a decidedly different character.

A quiet, unassuming senior’s spectacular performances have boosted St. Thomas to the national semifinals. He seemed like an outsider at the beginning of the year, but he’s shining in the postseason.

Forward Tony Kuplic is the embodiment of a comeback kid. He has scored five goals in four games so far in the NCAA tournament, including two game winners. Prior to the playoffs, he had never scored a goal for St. Thomas and had only appeared in eight career games.

Before this season, he had not played soccer for a school team since his high school days.

Head coach Jon Lowery did not see Kuplic’s incredible success coming.

“Nobody could have predicted this,” he said. “I think Tony’s the byproduct of a good team effort. They’ve put him in good spots and individually he’s stepping up and making plays.”

Kuplic didn’t think he would be in this situation a year ago. In fact, he didn’t even think he would be on the team.

His road to the Final Four has been bumpy. As a freshman, he was cut from the team. Lowery said he just wasn’t the type of player the program was looking for that year.

“Tony was just kind of an outlier at the time,” he said. “After the initial tryout we just kind of looked at it and said ‘You know what, we’re going to stick with the guys that we know, stick with the guys that we have invested more in in the recruiting process.’”

Figuring soccer wasn’t his calling, Kuplic tried out for the basketball team.

He had slightly better fortunes on the court. He played on the JV team during the 2013-14 season, and made the varsity squad in 2014-15. He played in three games during his sophomore year, and scored five points.

Misfortune struck after his sophomore campaign, and he was forced to give up basketball after breaking his foot. He landed awkwardly while going for a rebound in practice, and one of his tendons pulled the bone, breaking it.

In Kuplic’s mind, the injury signalled the end of his St. Thomas athletic career.

“I thought that was it. I definitely didn’t see soccer as a possibility afterwards,” he said.

As his senior year approached, Kuplic was encouraged by a teammate on his rec league soccer team to give it one more try.

“After playing with them he said, ‘I think you should try out for the team,’ for St. Thomas’s team,” Kuplic said. “I thought he was kind of joking at first, and I thought about it some more and thought, ‘Why not?’”

Little did anyone know, that seemingly innocuous decision would save the Tommies in the NCAA playoffs.

After he made the team, Kuplic had to integrate into a squad that is full of players who have played together for a long time as a relative newcomer. The transition was not all that difficult.

“Most of them didn’t know me before this season, so for them to welcome me to the team and have confidence in me as a player, it means a lot,” he said. “I know that that is a hard situation to navigate when they have played together for years, so it means a lot that they trust in me as a player and teammate.”

Late in the season, Lowery said the Tommies weren’t getting the kind of goal-scoring from their front three that they were hoping for. The solution was simple enough: Insert Kuplic.

“Simply put, it was a situation where, ‘Let’s give someone a chance,’ and we gave Tony 10 minutes here and there, gave him 20 minutes here and there and he’s been remarkably successful with the opportunities he’s had,” he said.

Kuplic netted the first two goals of his career to save the Tommies in the first round against St. Scholastica. Trailing 1-0 with three minutes remaining in the match, he struck to level the score and force overtime. In the second overtime period, he buried the Saints with his second career goal.

He banged in another goal in the second round against Luther. This time it was the dagger, as his goal put the Tommies up 2-0 and put the game out of reach for the Norse.

St. Thomas found itself in a 2-0 hole with 30 minutes remaining in the quarterfinals against Redlands. Kuplic wasn’t fazed, and he scored his fourth goal of the playoffs 10 minutes later. After forward Shae Bottum converted a penalty that sent the match to overtime, Kuplic punched the Tommies’ ticket to Virginia with the winning goal early in OT.

Lowery believes that Kuplic’s intangibles have been invaluable to the team.

“He has a coachless sense. It’s not coachable. What he does in the final third, he has a knack for the goal,” Lowery said. “He doesn’t have the strongest pedigree in club soccer. He doesn’t have the strongest pedigree with high school soccer. But at the end of the day, he can score goals.”

When it comes time to choose the starting lineup in the Final Four, Lowery said although nothing has been decided yet, he’ll be hesitant to mess with a good thing.

“As a coach, I’d be remiss not to stick with what got us here. I don’t think we really want to change too much going into the tough match in the national semifinals. That recipe has been Tony coming off the bench,” he said.

Whatever his role, Kuplic is looking forward to playing in the semifinals.

“I’m excited for the Final Four, getting out on the field and playing with my teammates. We’ve had a long break since the last game, so I’m just excited to get out there and see what happens,” he said. “It’s been a blessing to finish this way.”

St. Thomas (20-1-3) faces Tufts University (13-5-2) in the first semifinal game on Dec. 2 in Salem, Va. at 11 a.m. EST.

Spencer Flaten can be reached at flat6148@stthomas.edu.
Peter Monahan can be reached at mona7035@stthomas.edu.