LORETTO, Pa. (Nov. 2, 2007) – The Saint Francis men's soccer team got a pair of second half goals from two different freshmen to defeat Mount Saint Mary's 2-0 in a pivotal Northeast Conference match on Friday afternoon at the Stokes Soccer Complex.
The Red Flash will now host a winner-take-all contest against Monmouth at 1 p.m. on Sunday afternoon in both teams' regular season finales. It will be a rematch of last year's NEC Tournament final, which the then-16th ranked Hawks won 1-0 in West Long Branch, N.J.
Saint Francis, which is in first place in the NEC with 19 points and a 6-1-1 league record, needs a win or a tie to clinch the first NEC regular season title in school history. The Hawks are in second place with 18 points and a 6-2 NEC mark. The NEC awards three points for a win, and one point for a tie.
Monmouth dropped a 2-1 double-overtime decision at Robert Morris on Friday to fall into second place.
The NEC regular season champion will host the 2007 NEC Men's Soccer Tournament, which will be held Nov. 16 and 18.
The Red Flash battled Mount St. Mary's to a scoreless tie after the first 45 minutes, but freshmen Patrick Fleming (Dunedin, New Zealand / Bayfield) and Benjamin Kujawa (Jarrettsville, Md. / North Harford) scored goals in the final 33 minutes of action to give Saint Francis the win.
Junior goalkeeper Brad Williams (San Lorenzo, CA/Arroyo) (San Lorenzo, Calif. / Arroyo) stopped three shots in the game for his seventh shutout of the season, which ties his school record that he set in 2006. Former goalkeeper Bobby Pipech also recorded seven shutouts in 2005.
Fleming took a pass down the left side from fellow freshman Tyler Hibbs (St. Catherine, Canada / Governor Simcoe) and found himself on a breakaway for the first goal of the game, which turned out to be his fourth game-winner of the year. Fleming dribbled into the 18-yard box and released a laser from 14 yards out that went in the net off the hands of Mount goalkeeper Will Pike at 57 minutes, 12 seconds. It was Fleming's fourth goal of the season, which leads the team.
Senior Jeremy Tice (Litteton, CO/Chatfield) (Littleton, Colo. / Chatfield) set up the second goal with a steal near the left sideline. He beat a Mount St. Mary's defender for the ball, and fed Kujawa a cross inside the 18-yard box. Kujawa slammed it home for his second goal of the season, and a 2-0 Red Flash lead, at 81:06.
The Mount kept fighting and came up with their best chance of the game with 6:26 remaining. C.J. Cover got his head on a corner kick, targeting a shot that ricocheted off the far post. A Saint Francis defender cleared the ball harmlessly out of the box.
Pike stopped three shots between the pipes for Mount St. Mary's.
Notes: Junior GK Brad Williams (San Lorenzo, CA/Arroyo) now has 14 career shutouts, one behind former Red Flash GK Bobby Pipech for first place on the school's all-time list; Red Flash goalkeepers have now recorded seven individual shutouts in each of the past three seasons; SFU's sixth NEC win tied a school record for conference wins in a season. The Red Flash also recorded six NEC wins in 2004 and 2006, the first two playoff appearances in school history; The Red Flash are over .500 for the first time this season at 8-7-2.
