Bridgeport 3 St. Thomas Aquinas 2 (OT)
Bridgeport, Conn. - Junior Patric Brundin (Gothenburg, Sweden) scored the game-winning goal five minute and 46 seconds into overtime with a rocket shot into the top corner of net off an assist from senior Tim Stipo (LaVerne, Calif.) to give the University of Bridgeport men’s soccer team a 3-2 win over the St. Thomas Aquinas Spartans in the East Coast Conference semifinals played in Bridgeport, Connecticut on Friday afternoon.
The Purple Knights will now face the winner of the C.W. Post/Dowling semifinal that will be played on Friday night in the ECC final which will be played in Bridgeport on Sunday morning at 11:00 a.m. The win raises Bridgeport’s season record to 11-5-2. STAC finishes their season at 12-5-1.
In a back-and-forth match, St. Thomas Aquinas took the early lead when Remington Lee scored just 6:45 into play.
Bridgeport’s Markus Naglestad (FR, Kristiansand, Norway) tied things up at 1-1 when he netted his team-leading fourteenth goal of 2010 off an assist from Brundin at the 34:36 mark.
UB would take a 2-1 lead into the locker room at halftime when sophomore Jonathan Aristizabal (Medellin, Columbia/Westhill HS) scored with just 1:20 to play in the first half.
STAC would tie things up at 2-2 when Brendan Flynn scored with just over 12 minutes to play.
Bridgeport goalkeeper Milos Suljagic (Belgrade, Serbia) made five saves to record the win. The Spartans Andrew Tartara notched two saves in defeat.
Dowling 1 C.W. Post 1 - Dowling advances on penalty kicks 4-2
Brookhaven, N.Y.- The Golden Lions earned
another trip to the ECC Final after defeating C.W. Post University
in penalty kicks this Friday at Golden Lions Field. Tied up 1-1 at
the end of second overtime, Vladimir Milosavljevic had
the final penalty shot, putting it away into the upper right corner
to send his team to Bridgeport, CT this Sunday for the ECC
Championship match.
In a rematch of their last meeting on October 9th of this year that
saw Dowling take a 2-1 victory over the Pioneers in Brookville, NY,
C.W. Post traveled east to Golden Lions Field for ECC Semifinals
action. Both teams learned that the winner of their match
would be facing the University of Bridgeport in Bridgeport, CT
after the Purple Knights took a 3-2 win over St. Thomas Aquinas
College earlier in the day.
Both teams locked down and kept the score at 0-0 after 45 minutes
of play, with each team recording 5 shots. It wasn't until
the 61st minute that Dowling caught a break as Marius
Ramdahl was taken down in the box, setting the Golden Lions
up for a penalty kick situation. Stefan Draskovic
lined up for the kick and drilled it into the corner to put Dowling
up 1-0.
With just seven minutes remaining in regulation, Dowling saw their
advantage disappear as it was C.W. Post's turn to take a penalty
kick after a foul in the box. Betim Bajrami was able to get
it past Chris Kucera and even up the score at one a
piece. With many chances for each team, neither could find
the back of the net for the remainder of the match, ending the game
in a tie and sending it into a shootout to determine who advances
to the ECC Final.
With Kucera in the net for Dowling, he was able to turn away the
Pioneers' first shot, getting his hands on a ball from Rumen
Kerekov. Not to be outdone, Marco Jorgensen turned away a
shot by Jorge Ruiz in Dowling's third try, evening the
shots up at two each. With William Lindberg hitting the
crossbar on his try and Joseph Henton connecting for
Dowling, Milosavljevic lined up with a chance to end it. His
shot would fly past the keeper into the corner, moving the Golden
Lions closer to an ECC Championship title.
Dowling will travel to Bridgeport, CT where they will face the
University of Bridgeport this Sunday at 11:00am in the conference
final. The teams ended in a 0-0 draw on October 23rd at
Golden Lions Field during their regular season
meeting.
Provided by the Bridgeport and Dowling Sports Information Departments
