Men's Soccer Travels to Face Binghamton In AE Semifinal
October 31, 2006 | Men's Soccer
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VESTAL, N.Y. - The No. 5-seeded Boston University men's soccer team (10-4-4) will face the top-seeded Binghamton University Bearcats (8-6-4) in the semifinal round of the America East Championship on Wednesday, Nov. 1, at 1 p.m.
BU advanced to the conference tournament semifinals after defeating no. 5 seeded Albany with a Petur Sigurdsson (Hafnarfjordur, Iceland) goal in a thrilling double overtime win last Sunday. Sophomore Neil Hlavaty (Lombard, Ill.) lofted a corner kick at 103:25 into the box where it found the foot of Sigurdsson.
Sigurdsson leads the Terriers with six goals and one assist. Sophomore Jin Oh (Dededo, Guam) is second on the team with five goals. Senior co-captain and goalie Zach Riffett (Brenham, Tex.) has a goals against average (GAA) of 0.610 and a save percentage of 0.843.
The Bearcats finished the America East regular season with a 6-1-1 mark, which wrapped up the regular season title for Binghamton. The Bearcats are averaging 0.90 goals per game on 11.2 shots per game. Senior forward Peter Sgueglia leds BU with four goals and four assists and senior midfielder Bryan Arnault has two goals and three assists.
Red-shirt freshman goalie Jason Stenta has a 0.68 GAA, an .815 save percentage and a 7-2-3 record. Binghamton started the season losing or tying the first four games (0-3-1). The Bearcats peaked at the right time, winning six of their eight conference games. Binghamton had a bye in the first round of the tournament.
When the two teams met earlier this season, sophomore forward Dan Schultz (Cincinnati, Ohio) slipped the game’s lone goal past a diving Stenta to post his second tally of the season and lead the Boston University men’s soccer team past America East rival Binghamton. Senior midfielder Jarryd Goldberg (Basking Ridge, N.J.) set up the play from the top left corner of the box, tapping a pass to Schultz who received the ball eight yards out and sent the sharply-angled ball into the right side of the net with 9:13 remaining in the game.
The Terriers and Bearcats have met six times in the last four seasons. The first meeting occurred on Oct. 6, 2002 when Boston U took home its biggest win of the series, a 3-0 decision at home. The Terriers’ only other win came on Sept. 25, 2004 at home, 2-0. The two BUs have met twice in the America East Tournament - each time went to a shootout. Boston U advanced on Nov. 14, 2004 after winning the shootout 5-3 before Binghamton advanced on Nov. 5, 2005 when the Bearcats won the shootout 4-3.
In the other AE Tournament semifinal, no. 3 New Hampshire and no. 2 Vermont will play at 1 p.m. on Wednesday as well.
The winners of the two semifinals will meet on either Saturday, Nov. 5 or Sunday, Nov. 6 at the home field of the higher seed.
