For Immediate Release
November 6, 2010
South Easton, Mass. – The top-seeded Franklin Pierce University Men's Soccer Team will host third-seeded Bentley University in the Northeast-10 Men's Soccer Championship Final. The game will be played this Sunday at 1 p.m. in Rindge, N.H.
The game can be seen live at www.northeast10.tv
Franklin Pierce is currently the top-ranked team in the country as a result of their 16-1-1 mark. The Ravens went 12-0-1 in Northeast-10 Conference play, and have not lost over their past 15 outings (14-0-1), a stretch that dates back to September 7th. Franklin Pierce blitzed #8 Merrimack 5-1 in the quarterfinals, and then went to knock off #4 Le Moyne 1-0 in the semifinals to advance to the championship game.
The Ravens are looking for their first conference tournament championship in men's soccer since 2006.
Bentley was picked to finish sixth by the conference's coaches prior to the start of the campaign, but they have surpassed expectations to reach the conference tournament final. The Falcons went 11-2-6 overall and 7-1-5 in conference play to earn the third seed.
Bentley has quickly become the cardiac kids of the tournament to this point. They needed extra time in both tournament games so far to advance to the finals. In the first round, they defeated #6 New Haven 1-0 in overtime, and they then went on to upset #2 Southern Connecticut State 5-3 in penalty kicks to earn the win. In the semifinal win over the Owls, Bentley trailed 2-0 with just over 15 minutes left, but scored two goals in a span of five minutes to send the game into overtime.
It is Bentley's first trip to the conference championship since 1994, the last year they won the conference postseason tournament.
The Ravens and the Falcons met during the regular season in mid October, and played to a 1-1 tie. In that showdown, Franklin Pierce jumped out to an early lead, when Amory Houghton tallied just five minutes into the game. Bentley would get the equalizer with just over 20 minutes left when All-Conference first teamer Weston Zeiner tied the game at 1. This time, when the teams square off, a conference title will be at stake.
Franklin Pierce has used a balanced attack to ascend to the top of the rankings. Defensively, the Ravens have allowed only ten goals all year, and have posted ten shutouts. They are currently fifth in the country in goals against average. On the offensive side, eleven different players have tallied at least one goal with Jeff Hay leading the squad with seven. Tom Reilly, who was named Northeast-10 Conference Player of the Year, leads the Ravens attack.
The Falcons' bailiwick has been their defense, as they have allowed only 12 goals all season long. Prior to their semifinal win over So. Connecticut, Bentley went six straight games without allowing a goal. Their defense did not allow a goal in nine of their 19 games. Offensively, thirteen different Falcons have scored a goal on the year; however, no player on the team has more than four tallies (Weston Zeiner).
Between the pipes, Bentley's Michael Nikiforov was named the Northeast-10 Goalkeeper of the Year, and is among the country's leaders in goals against average.
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