Men’s Soccer to Host Elms in NECC Semi’s
BENNINGTON, Vt.- As the 2011 New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) regular season champions, the Southern Vermont College Men's soccer team will host fifth seeded Elms College, Friday. The match will kick off on Everett Field at 2:00PM.
The Mountaineers enter the match as the number one seed with a record of 11-4-1 overall. SVC went unbeaten in conference play with a 6-0-1 mark. The Blazers of Elms come into the semi-finals after a first round victory over Newbury College, Wednesday. Elms beat Newbury 2-1 in its quarter-final match to improve its record to 7-10 overall. The Blazers finished the NECC regular season with a 3-4 mark.
SVC and Elms met once in the 2011 season as the Mountaineers were 4-1 victors. The two squads played a scoreless first half before a barrage of second half goals. Five minutes into the second frame Elms' Ziggy Jonathan scored to give the Blazers a 1-0 lead. Less than a minute later SVC started its scoring. The Mountaineers scored four times in the next five minutes for the win.
The game will feature two of the top three scoring teams in the conference as Elms scored 23 goals in NECC play while SVC scored 22. The Blazers have league leading points scorer in Jonathan, who scored 14 goals and contributed six assists. On the other side, SVC is led by 2010 NECC Player of the Year Nick Haggerty who scored 15 goals in his senior season.
"The results of the regular season no longer matter. We proved last year as a five seed anything can happen. It is important that we stay focused and play our game for 90 minutes," SVC Head Coach Tim Penrod said.
The winner of Friday's semi-final match will play in Sunday's championship game at 1:00PM. If the Mountaineers win they will host the final game, if the Blazers win they will look to be the first team to win three times on the road in the playoffs.
