Owls jump out to three goal
lead, but sustain late Ravens rally
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (October
20, 2004) - Southern Connecticut State University, ranked
No. 2 in this week's National Soccer Coaches Association of America
(NSCAA)/adidas Division II poll, held off a late rally to collect a
3-2 victory over Franklin Pierce, ranked fourth in the New England
Region, in a key Northeast-10 Conference men's soccer match at Jess
Dow Field tonight.
The loss puts Franklin Pierce's
NCAA Tournament hopes in serious jeopardy as the Ravens now have
losses to each of the three teams ahead of them in the regional
rankings, with only the top three teams in each of eight NCAA
Division II regions receiving bids to the NCAA Tournament. Franklin
Pierce now must round out the regular season with victories and win
the NE-10 Tournament while posting any combination of wins over Le
Moyne College, UMass Lowell and Southern Connecticut in the
semifinal and championship rounds to have a chance. There are no
automatic bids for the NCAA Tournament.
Southern Connecticut came out and
immediately put Franklin Pierce under pressure with two goals in
the first 20 minutes of the match. Both Owl goals came from
freshman Michael Semendo (Waterbury, Conn./Holy
Cross) with assists from senior Uziel
Vazquez (Yonkers, N.Y./Herkimer County
CC).
Semendo's first marker at 13:02
snapped Franklin Pierce freshman goalkeeper James
Thorpe's (East Longmeadow, Mass./Bridgton Academy)
program record shutout streak at 518:38 and also put an end to the
Ravens five-match shutout streak.
"They really took it to us for the
first 20 minutes or so," said Franklin Pierce Head Coach Marco
Koolman. "After that we settled in a bit and I felt we controlled
the second half. It was a tale of two halves, really."
The Owls appeared to ice the match
when junior Ilias Calaitzidis (Brossard,
Quebec/Champlain Regional) took a feed from senior
Mateus dos Anjos (Astoria, N.Y./Long Island
City) in close and hit a shot off Thorpe into the net
at 78:30.
However, that proved to set off a
wild two-minute sequence as grad student Christopher
Joyce (Jarrow, England) put Franklin Pierce on the
board just 25-seconds later, assisted by Tom McNeil
(Paisley, Scotland), at 78:55. The Ravens struck
again 1:05 after that with Joyce setting up freshman
Gijs Roodbeen (Nijmegen, The Netherlands)
for a 20-yard blast at 79:50.
Both teams registered eight shots
in the match with Southern freshman Tim Doheny (Wayne,
N.J./Wayne Valley) preserving the victory with five
saves. Thorpe registered four stops for the Ravens.
Franklin Pierce (11-5, 8-3 NE-10)
is back in action on Saturday when it visits American International
College for a match at 11 a.m. Southern Connecticut State (13-0-2,
10-0-1 NE-10) hosts Merrimack College on Saturday at 7 p.m.
MATCH
STATISTICS
