Gareth Dudney notches first tally of the season

NEWARK, Del. (September 8, 2012) -- Senior forward Greg Giguere (East Bridgewater, Mass.) logged three goals for a six-point afternoon to lead the No. 3 nationally-ranked Franklin Pierce University men's soccer team to a wild 5-4 win over Wilmington (Del.) at the WU Athletic Complex in Newark. The Ravens improved to 2-0, while WilmU dipped to 1-3.

Giguere's career-high total against Wilmington gave him four goals for the season, which is tops on the team. He scored in the 25th, 42nd and 71st minutes to spark the Ravens explosive offensive attack. His first tally broke a one-all tie in the opening half and his third broke a three-all score in the second 45 minutes.

Both teams traded penalty kick tallies in the opening 12 minutes, as WilmU got the wild afternoon started with Tom Quaranta's penalty kick in the 10th minute. Just 85 seconds later, it was Franklin Pierce's turn to try a PK and graduate back Daniel Donaldson (Moenchengladbach, Germany) converted to even the score at 1-1. It was Donaldson's second goal of the campaign as he also struck home a penalty kick attempt in last Saturday's 3-0 triumph over Caldwell.

Giguere struck for the first time in the match 13 minutes later to give the Ravens a 2-1 advantage. The scoring play started as he took a crossing pass from freshman back Le-Shaun Young (Pickering, Ontario) from just outside the 18 and lofted a touch past the WilmU goalkeeper. Young picked up an assist on the play for his first collegiate point.

Giguere gave the Ravens a 3-1 lead late in the first half as a through pass from freshman Nico Mueller (Mannheim, Germany) landed on his foot just inside the 18 and he was able to bury a shot into the back of the net for the two-goal advantage. Mueller earned an assist on the play as it marked the second time in as many matches this season he gained at least one point.

With Franklin Pierce's depth on the backend, it figured to be a comfortable lead for the Ravens, but Wilmington notched a pair of markers in the first 17 minutes of the second half to pull even at three-all. Pedro Moreira scored in the 52nd minute and Ray Kuemmer tied it in the 62nd off a free kick from 22 yards out.

Giguere came to the rescue one more time for the Ravens and snapped the tie nine minutes later as he pounced on a failed clear attempt by WilmU and deposited a strike into the back of the goal to lift the Ravens to a 4-3 edge.

Junior Gareth Dudney (North Andover, Mass.) scored what proved to be the match-winner in the 76th minute as he sent one into the back of the net off a free kick attempt from 23 yards out. Dudney's shot just eluded the keeper as it caromed off his hand into the goal. For Dudney, it was his first tally of the season.

Wilmington tried to make things interesting inside the final two minutes as it got a goal from Matko Novak to pull within 5-4. However, the Ravens would not allow WilmU to score the equalizer, thus picking up the win to improve to 28-0-2 in their last 30 regular season matches dating back to the 2010 campaign.

Graduate goalkeeper Jake Wright (Los Angeles, Calif.) picked up the win in goal for the Ravens as he stopped three shots to improve to 2-0. The three saves marked the first ones of his career in a Franklin Pierce uniform as Wright did not need to make a stop in last week's shutout of Caldwell. Chad Jenkins made three saves in suffering the loss for WilmU.

Franklin Pierce returns to action Tuesday night when the Ravens open their Northeast-10 Conference schedule by traveling to face UMass-Lowell at 7 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).