Flash Points:

• Saint Francis jumped from not ranked to #5 in the Northeast region rankings
• The Red Flash will take on Colgate on Sunday who is #2 in the Northeast region
• SFU opens up the weekend at Cornell, both matches are part of the Inaria Cup
• Sunday's match will be played at Colgate.
• Northeast rankings can be viewed here

 
LORETTO, PA- Coming off wins at then receiving votes Penn State and a vastly improved Niagara squad, Saint Francis men's soccer has risen to number five in the Northeast Region rankings put out by the National Soccer Coaches' Association of America (NSCAA).
 
The Red Flash went from un-ranked in the region to #5 overall after the two victories that put SFU at 4-2 on the season heading into the weekend's Inaria Cup hosted by Cornell. The weekend offers the opportunity to move up even higher in the rankings as top-region seed Rider lost to Princeton this week and SFU faces off with number-two ranked Colgate on Sunday.
 
Saint Francis has gotten stellar defensive play from their backline and goalkeeper Marcus Rojas (Fremont, Calif./Bellarmine College Preparatory) as the defense stood strong allowing just one goal over the past weekend.  The offense got multi-point weekends out of Nicco and Mario Mastrangelo (Venetia, Pa/Peters Township) as well as Troye Kiernan (Pittsburgh, Pa./Upper St. Clair). Nicco Mastrangelo (Venetia, Pa/Peters Township) netted a pair of headers including the game-winner against Niagara. They were the first two goals of his college career en route to the conference Player of the Week honors.
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
 
Cornell heads into the week at 0-3-1 on the year with a match against Binghamton on the docket before taking on the Red Flash on Friday night. Brady Dickens leads Cornell with a pair of goals but the Big Red have scored only four times in the four matches to date. Mitchell Meyer has gotten the majority of time in net and has a 2.41 goals against average and a .550 save percentage.
 
ABOUT THE RAIDERS
As stated above, Colgate comes into the Inaria Cup weekend ranked second in the Northeast region with a 4-1 mark with their only setback to #6 Syracuse. The Raiders will take on New Hampshire on Friday before hosting the Red Flash on Sunday. They were picked to finish third in the Patriot League and are led by reigning Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year Ethan Kutler. Kutler leads the team with three goals on the season. In goal, Ricky Brown has gotten every start in goal and has allowed just three goals in five matches for a 0.60 goals against average. Brown also owns a .800 save percentage.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
Both matches will have live stats as well as a live stream. Friday's match will have a charge on the video stream on the Ivy League Network.  The links to the stats and video are available on the men's soccer schedule page.
 
LOOKING AHEAD
Saint Francis will return to the Stokes SoccerPlex on Wednesday, September 21 when they face Bucknell at 3 p.m.