Loretto, Pa. - Loretto, Pa. – The Saint Francis men's soccer team (8-6, 1-2 NEC) heads to New York for two conference matches at LIU Brooklyn on Friday, Oct. 20, and St. Francis Brooklyn on Sunday, Oct. 22. SFU's two opponents this weekend will be the same teams it faced in last year's NEC Tournament.

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Scouting LIU Brooklyn
 
After recording a 1-6-2 record outside of conference, the Blackbirds have stormed out to first place in the NEC with a 2-0 record. LIU Brooklyn went on the road to earn wins over Sacred Heart and CCSU to open the conference season. The Blackbirds have been competitive in nearly all of its matches as five of its six losses have been decided by a goal. Junior midfielder Rasmus Hansen, a First Team All-NEC and All-Northeast Region selection in 2016, leads the team and ranks third in the conference with six goals. Romario Guscott has added two goals and two assists.

Series History

Saint Francis defeated the Blackbirds twice last season, including a 1-0 victory in the NEC Semifinals, and leads the all-time series 18-12-2.

Live Video

Scouting St. Francis Brooklyn
 
The Red Flash will look to knock off the defending champs on Sunday in a showdown of last year's NEC title match won by the Terriers 1-0.  St. Francis Brooklyn is 7-4-1 overall and 1-0-1 in the conference after a 1-0 win over Fairleigh Dickinson and a 0-0 draw with Sacred Heart. Sami Gliguem, Ali Tounkara  and Faouzi Taieb lead the team with three goals. Tounkara leads with eight points. The Terriers are a solid defensive unit ranking second in the NEC in goals against average (1.14).
 
Series History

The Terriers lead the series 17-13 and have won the last three meetings.
 
Gut-Check Time
 
The Saint Francis season was revived by senior Andres Vega (Managua, Nicaragua/Colegio Centro America) last Sunday when his game-winning goal in double overtime gave SFU its first three points in conference and helped it avoid an 0-3 start. SFU's backs were to the wall when freshman Christian Kirchhoff (Aarhaus, Denmark) was ejected via a straight red card in the 78th minute, but the team showed fight and resolve to find the winning goal.

Difficult Trip
 
The trip to New York is one of the toughest of the year for Saint Francis as it includes two games against two quality opponents. Saint Francis went 0-2 in New York in 2015 and is just 1-3 over its last two trips.