Carlos Alvarez assists on game-winning goal

RINDGE, N.H. (October 27, 2012) -- Freshman midfielder Nico Mueller (Mannheim, Germany) scored a pair of goals, including one with :01 left in the first overtime to lift the Franklin Pierce University men's soccer team to a 3-2 OT victory at Sodexo Field in Rindge on Saturday. The Ravens concluded their regular season with a 10-4-2 overall record and an 8-3-2 mark in the Northeast-10, while the Dolphins dipped to 7-8-1 and 6-6-1 in league play.

Mueller's two goals were his fifth and sixth of the season, which moved him into a tie for the team lead with six markers and into the top spot with 15 points.

Mueller's overtime heroics came after he pulled even more heroics in regulation as he knotted the score at 2-2 in the 88th minute when he headed in a goal from in front of the net off a pretty crossing pass from graduate back Tom Leaver (Warwickshire, UK), who was credited with an assist on the play.

Mueller's marker snapped the Ravens out of their struggles which plagued them most of the second half. Franklin Pierce pushed hard over the remaining two minutes of regulation to score the game-winning goal, but was not able to.

The teams entered overtime and played near midfield for the first several minutes, but the Ravens started to make a push into Le Moyne's side of the field and finally generated a couple of strong scoring opportunities in the closing minutes.

Things finally broke Franklin Pierce's way in the final 10 seconds as sophomore back Carlos Alvarez (Pawtucket, R.I.) fed a pass towards the net, which Mueller was able to get his head on and send a strike to the back of the net which ignited a celebration from the Ravens bench. Alvarez earned an assist on the play for his first career collegiate point.

Franklin Pierce outshot Le Moyne by a count of 27-9, including a 5-0 edge in overtime. The Ravens exploded offensively as they registered the first 10 shots of the match and had a 13-3 advantage at halftime.

It didn't take long for Franklin Pierce to take a 1-0 lead, as in the eighth minute junior midfielder Jefferson Rojas (Pawtucket, R.I.) worked his way down towards the end line in the Dolphins zone and sent a pass over to senior middie Amory Houghton (Cape Elizabeth, Maine), who chipped in a shot to the upper left corner of the goal. It was Houghton's second goal of the season, while Rojas also picked up a helper on the play.

Both teams settled and played around the midfield stripe for the remainder of the first half as the Ravens took the one-goal lead into halftime.

The opening minutes of the second half were similar to the final minutes of the first, but the momentum changed in Le Moyne's favor in the 62nd minute when Casey Murphy jumped on a loose ball near the top of the box and fired home a strike to the lower left corner of the goal past a diving Franklin Pierce goalkeeper Jake Wright (Los Angeles, Calif.).

The goal sparked the Dolphins and they went on top, 2-1, just two minutes later when Franklin Pierce failed to make a clear, which Alexander Lautner was able to track down a fire off a shot to the same corner of the net as Murphy's goal found.

Both teams traded scoring opportunites over the next several minutes before Mueller turned in his late-game heroics.

Wright made a pair of saves to earn the win and run his record to 10-4-2 on the year. Le Moyne keeper Matthew Silva stopped six shots while suffering the loss to fall to 7-8-1 on the year.

Franklin Pierce returns to action Monday when the Ravens open post-season play by traveling to Waltham, Mass. to take on Bentley in the quarterfinals of the Northeast-10 Conference playoffs. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.

For more information on Franklin Pierce men's soccer, please visit the team's page at athletics.franklinpierce.edu(.) To follow the program even further, please visit Franklin Pierce Athletics on YouTube (www.youtube.com/FranklinPierceSports), Twitter (www.twitter.com/FPUathletics) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce men's soccer apparel can do so on the athletic department's brand new online store at athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store(.)