Nashua - Bring on the Mountaineers.
The Daniel Webster College men's soccer team, currently enjoying
its best season in program history, plays its first ever home
playoff game Friday afternoon when they take on fourth-seeded
Southern Vermont College in the New England Collegiate Conference's
(NECC) semifinal round.
The match kicks off at 2:00 p.m. at Eagle Field.
The host Eagles, who won their first ever conference regular season
title this past weekend, look to advance to and host the NECC's
championship game Sunday at 1:00 p.m. The winner of the
Eagles-Mountaineers contest will face the winner of Friday's second
semifinal as third-seeded Newbury College visits second-seeded
Lesley University.
In many ways, the Eagles and Mountaineers are enjoying parallel
successes. Both programs sport coaches - DWC's Bill Lawler and
SVC's Tim Penrod - in their third overall seasons who are seeing
their labors bear fruit after inheriting programs that had minimal
success over the previous decade.
Lawler took over a program that had never enjoyed a winning season
and posted a 2-13-2 mark in his first year (2007), improving to 9-8
last year before 10-5 this year.
Penrod meanwhile, took over a program that had not had a winning
campaign since 1991 and suffered a winless campaign in 2007 and a
2-13-1 mark last year.
This season, Southern Vermont comes into the semifinal 11-7-1
overall - the most wins for the program since that same 1991
season.
The evenly matched series enters its 15th chapter as the two foes
are also former members of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference.
The series stands at 6-6-2 dating back to 1994 with the Eagles
having won three straight including a tight 2-1 home decision this
past October 10th.
The Eagles are paced by sophomores Spencer Bernard (Windsor Locks,
Conn.), who leads the team with an 8-2--18 mark, followed by senior
Andre Garcia (Springfield, Mass.) with a 6-3-15 mark, sophomore
Jackson (Kent, Ohio) with a 4-7-15 total, and rookie Joel Jerrhag
(Ystad, Sweden) who adds a 6-2-14 record. In goal, sophomore Joe
Keene (Bristol, N.H.) owns a 1.17 GAA with three shutouts.
The Mountaineers earned their way into the semifinals with a 2-0
victory over Mitchell College this past Wednesday with Nick
Haggerty and Gus Chery scoring the goals while Aaron Eschler made
four stops. On the season, Haggerty leads the club with a 14-13--41
mark followed by Adrien Alexis (13-3--29), and Tony Martinez
(5-3--13). Eschler sports a 1.26 GAA with two shutouts.
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