Grove City advanced to the NCAA men’s soccer tournament for the first time since 1980.

Now, “Murrysville North” wants more.

Grove City (15-2-2) features several players and coaches with Franklin Regional ties: basically the entire collection of Kimmichs and a coach who helped power Franklin Regional to back-to-back WPIAL championships in 2018 and ‘19.

There are three Kimmich brothers on the team, two starting players and one coach.

Grad student Luke Kimmich is a fifth-year midfielder who also had played on the back line for the Wolverines — and also the golf team — while junior Jake Kimmich is a defender.

Luke has a goal and five assists for the Wolverines, who open NCAA play Friday.

“It’s pretty special to get that (Presidents’ Athletic Conference) win after coming back from a season-ending injury last year,” Luke Kimmich said. “It’s been so special to play with all the guys. Lots of Franklin blood has come through over the years. Three of the four members of the back line all played together and went deep into playoffs over those years at FR.”

Team minutes leader Jake Kimmich said familiarity with his teammates goes a long way. He has started all 19 games and contributed to a lockdown unit that allows 0.58 goals per game.

“Luke, Colton (Hudson), and I have grown up playing with each other, so our chemistry on the back line was great,” Jake Kimmich said. “This whole experience winning the PAC, especially with my brothers, is something that I will never forget. I feel very blessed and thankful to God for getting one more year to play with Luke after his injury last year, then having Matt on the coaching staff made the season incredible. The three of us have talked about winning this for awhile now, so being able to finally get it done is a great feeling.”

Another starter is junior defender Hudson, another Franklin Regional product. He has a goal and an assist in 18 games.

“I think when this team plays our best we can compete with anyone, and we have showed that many times throughout the year,” Hudson said. “We have beat and played against some great teams already. We also have lots of momentum going into this tournament, so the team is feeling very excited going into the week.”

Matt Kimmich, a Grove City alum, is an assistant coach along with Rand Hudson, Colton’s father and the former Franklin Regional head coach who guided the team to two WPIAL titles.

Rand Hudson played at Grove City.

The Franklin Regional alums see a carry-over of the approach and style they learned in high school.

“I think the biggest thing that we bring from Franklin is deep playoff experience,” Luke Kimmich said. “We all have gone far throughout our high school careers in the playoffs, being highly ranked. Obviously, the past couple years things haven’t gone our way, but that fight all stems from high school. That and the culture we are building here at Grove. It’s pretty cool to lock arms with your brothers and grind out a win.

“We are super confident going into nationals and know we can hang with any team in the country.”

Said Jake Kimmich: “I think just coming from a program like FR, all of us are used to big games, both winning and losing them. So that definitely helped us when we got into playoffs this year just knowing how to handle the pressure.”

Two other local players on the team are senior forward Owen Zimmerman of Kiski Area and junior forward Carlo Denis of Greensburg Central Catholic.

Denis, who went from one GCC to another, has played in all 19 games and had a pair of goals. Zimmerman has an assist in 11 appearances.

Grove City won its first conference title in 20 years with a 1-0 win over Franciscan last weekend.

The Wolverines will open the national tournament 1:30 p.m. Friday against Calvin (16-3-1) at Hobart College in Geneva, N.Y.

What’s interesting is the teams met earlier in the season, but their game did not count. It was called with 33 minutes remaining in Grand Rapids, Mich. because of a thunderstorm.

The first-round winner will play Hobart (13-0-5) or Messiah (11-7-2) at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Hobart and Messiah play at 11 a.m. Friday.

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