CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Hartford's Andreas Blamo (Monrovia, Liberia/Hall) was named the America East Men's Soccer Player of the Week on Monday, November 5 after scoring key goals in each of the Hawk's games. UMBC's Levi Houapeu (Germantown, Md./Watkins Mill) garnered Rookie of the Week honors for the week ending November 4. Click here for complete release.
Blamo led the Hawks to their first America East Championship appearance in four years by scoring two key goals last week. He notched the game-winning goal in a 2-1 win over UMBC on Wednesday and had the game-tying score in the 87th minute against Albany on Sunday to secure a 1-1 draw. Blamo leads Hartford with 16 points on six goals and four assists this season.Houapeu (Germantown, Md./Watkins Mill) scored the Retriever’s lone goal in a 1-1 tie against New Hampshire on Saturday. The one point clinched an America East Championship berth for UMBC for the third time in the last six years.
Houapeu scored the Retriever’s lone goal in a 1-1 tie against New Hampshire on Saturday. His goal in the 47th minute gave UMBC the one point needed to clinch an America East Championship berth for the third time in the last six years.
The America East Men's Soccer Championship gets underway on Saturday, Nov. 10 with a pair of quarterfinal matchups. No. 6 New Hampshire will travel to No. 3 Boston University for a 1 p.m. showdown, while No. 5 UMBC heads to No. 4 Hartford for a 6 p.m. contest.
Team Notebooks
Albany (3-10-4, 2-3-3 America East) went 1-0-1 in two home games last week to close out the season... The Great Danes defeated Maine, 1-0, on Wednesday, Oct. 31... Don Johnson (Bronx, N.Y./Cardinal Spellman) scored just 2:54 into the contest for the eventual gamewinner... Junior goalkeeper Steward Ceus (West Haverstraw, N.Y./North Rockland) registered three saves in the match for the Great Danes... UAlbany outshot the Black Bears 13-7 in the contest, including 7-2 in the decisive first half... On Sunday, Nov. 4, the Great Danes closed out their season with a 1-1 tie against visiting Hartford... After playing the first 86 minutes scoreless, both teams tallied within 22 seconds of each other... Junior Gaby Seguin-Gauthier (Chateauguay, Quebec/College Francais/Champlain) collected a feed down the left sideline and slotted a breakaway goal into the net for a 1-0 lead with 3:47 remaining in regulation... Hartford answered back at the 3:25 mark with header into the right side of the goal... UAlbany had a sliding shot from just outside the goal box with 22 seconds remaining, but the Hartford goalkeeper made a diving save... UAlbany did not qualify for the conference’s postseason tournament for the first time in four seasons.
Binghamton (13-5-0, 5-3-0 America East) clinched the America East Conference regular season title for the second consecutive year. It marks the fifth time that a Bearcat squad has clinched a regular-season championship. In addition to last season's men's soccer team, the 2007 baseball team, 2004 women's soccer team and 2004 men's lacrosse team all captured the regular season crown ... Binghamton's 13 wins is its most at the Division I level, eclipsing the 12 victories in 2003 and 2005. The last year Binghamton won more at least 13 games in a season came in in 1993, when the then-Colonials finished 14-6-1 at the NCAA Division III level.
Boston University (9-6-3, 3-2-3 America East) went 0-1-1 last week to close the regular season... the Terriers are the No. 3 seed in the upcoming America East conference tournament and will host the No. 6 seed New Hampshire on Saturday, Nov. 10 at 1p.m. on Boston U’s Nickerson Field... Last year as the No. 5 seed Boston U made it to the semifinals before Binghamton advanced on penalty kicks, 6-5... Last week, the Terriers tied UNH 0-0 on their home field before falling in overtime to Vermont, 1-0, in Burlington, Vt... Boston U is 12-6-4 all-time in the conference tournament going back to 1989 when the America East was the North Atlantic Conference (NAC)... Three times a Boston U play-off game has gone into penalty kicks with the Terriers advancing the first time (vs. Binghamton, 5-3) and winning the America East championship but falling the last two times - both against Binghamton (in 2005, 4-3; in 2006, 6-5)... The Terriers have won the league tournament title six times, the last in 2004... Boston U has a 21-16-8 lead in the all-time series. The Terriers dominated from the early ?80s to the early ?90s, winning all 12 games played between 1983 and 1993. The series has been more even since. BU is just 5-4-6 since 1994 and all six overtime matches with UNH in that span have ended in ties.
Hartford (7-4-6, 2-1-5 America East) qualified for the upcoming America East Championship for the first time under Head Coach Dan Gaspar after recording a 1-1 tie against Albany on November 4. The playoff hopes were kept alive when the Hawks posted a 2-1 mid-week victory over the UMBC Retrievers on Wednesday. Against UMBC the Hawks received goals from Oswald Adu (Toronto, Ontario/C.W. Jeffreys) and Andreas Blamo (Monrovia, Liberia/Hall) with the later recording the game-winner. Blamo connected with Daniel Antunez for a full field goal. Antunez sent a long pass down the right side of the field where Blamo sent his shot under the cross bar from the right. Adu scored the Hawks first goal of the game, connecting with Gary Muir (Glasgow, Scotland, Louisburg JC) in the eighth minute on a rebound off an initial free kick. Against Albany the two teams played even for the first 86 minutes of the game. The Great Danes struck first, but Hartford wasn't going to let it go, scoring just 22 seconds later. Blamo again provided the offense, this time scoring on a header off a pass from Corey Patrick. The Hawks will open play in the America East Championship on Saturday at home, hosting UMBC at 6 p.m. at Al-Marzook Field.
Maine (3-13-1, 1-6-1 America East) finished the season with a 1-0 loss
at Albany on October 31... It was the fifth 1-0 loss on the season for
the Black Bears and sixth one-goal loss for Maine during the 2007
season... Dimitri Anastasiou (Colchester, Conn./Bacon Academy) led
Maine in scoring on the season with four goals for eight points...
Anastasiou had a team-high two game-winning goals... Rookie Thomas
McCole (Toronto, Ontario/Cardinal Newman) finished second on the team
in scoring with two goals and one assist for five points... Maine
finished 3-2-1 at home on the season... The Black Bears lose three
starters to graduation in Kiaran McCormack (Dundalk, Ireland/Vermont),
Dan Eggert (Allegany,N.Y./Allegany-Limestone) and Pat Halligan
(Falmouth, Maine/Falmouth/UConn)
UMBC (8-6-4, 3-3-2 America East) has now earned spots in the America East Championship in 2003, 2005 and 2007... The Retrievers were 3-0-1 vs. America East competition at home this season and are 14-2-5 in five years of league play... In the 1-1 double overtime tie vs. UNH, the Retrievers broke on top just 1:38 into the second half... Freshman midfielder Levi Houapeu (Germantown, Md./Watkins Mill) stole a ball from a Wildcat defender placed his third goal of the season past a charging UNH netminder Mike Jenne and into the lower right corner of the net... The Retrievers were a perfect 7-0 this season when scoring the game’s first goal, but the desperate Wildcats ended that streak in the 70th minute as UNH senior midfielder Adam Marcellus recovered a loose ball on the left side and beat UMBC junior netminder Steve King (Baltimore,Md./Archbishop Curley) with a shot that rolled into the net just inside the far right post... UMBC heads into the tournament having allowed goals in three straight games for the first time this season... The Retrievers were a perfect 4-0 in America East play vs. first-round tournament foe Hartford until suffering a 2-1 loss in West Hartford on Halloween night... Junior midfielder Kevin Gnatiko (Montgomery Village, Md./Watkins Mill) tied the game for UMBC midway through the first half, scoring in his third straight game and tying teammate Andrew Gillis (Baltimore, Md./Perry Hall) for the team lead with 12 points... The Hawks got the game-winning goal midway through the second half as Gnatiko and Gillis barely misfired on attempts in the final ten minutes... UMBC is 0-2 in two previous America East Tournaments, having lost at home on both occasions (1-0 to Northeastern in 2003 and 4-1 to Binghamton in 2005) in semifinal action... The Retrievers have posted their ninth winning season in 10 years.
New Hampshire (5-4-8, 2-1-5 America East) wrapped-up the regular season with two ties, qualifying them for the America East Tournament while setting a new school record for ties in a signle season with eight ... The Wildcats battled to a scoreless draw after 110 minutes of play at Boston University ... A\Senior goalkeeper Mike Jenne (Vernon, N.Y./Whitesboro Central) turned away a then-career high seven shots to earn his eighth shutout of the season for the Wildcats ... In the final regular-season game, the Wildcats battled to a 1-1 tie at UMBC ... After a scoreless first half, UMBC took the lead ... The Wildcats struck back halfway through the second period at 69:04, thanks to senior Adam Marcellus (Malvern, Penn./Great Valley) goal ... Jenne in his last regular game of his career, broke a personal record in saves after he turned away eight shots, including one in the first overtime ... The sixth seeded Wildcats will faced No. 3 Boston University in the quarterfinal game of the America East tournament.
Stony Brook (9-7-3, 3-4-1 America East) went 0-1-1 to finish the 2007 regular season. In the 0-0 tie against Yale, Stony Brook had numerous chances to score but was unable to find the back of the net. The Seawolves best chance came late in the game when Michael Palacio (Long Beach, N.Y./Long Beach) had a header that went just off the crossbar and skidded out. In its 1-0 loss to Binghamton, the Seawolves best opportunity came when Oscar Leis (Ozone Park, N.Y./Archbishop Molloy) took a shot that Binghamton keeper Jason Stenta had to make a diving save for. Prior to the Binghamton game, Stony Brook honored its seven seniors.
Vermont (7-9-2, 4-4-2 America East) completed a remarkable midseason turnaround with a pair of impressive wins over the top two teams in America East heading into last week ... Vermont scored twice in the first 12:05 to blank Binghamton Wednesday and then beat Boston University, 1-0, in overtime Saturday ... UVM won three straight to jump from sixth to second in the final regular season standings ... Overall, the Catamounts have gone 4-1-2 since starting the season 3-8-0 ... Junior goalkeeper Roger Scully (East Lyme, Conn./East Lyme) led another two solid defensive efforts shutting out two of the top offensive teams in the conference in Boston U. and Binghamton ... Scully has recorded five straight shutouts and allowed just three goals in eight conference games for a 0.35 goals against average. In all games he has a 0.66 goals against average ... Senior forward Tyler Hasman (Portland, Ore./Lincoln/Yavapai JC) set up all three of Vermont’s goals last week. All four of his assists this season have come against America East foes ... Lee Stephane Kouadio (Woodlyn, Pa./Ridley) scored the overtime goal against Boston University, his second game-winner in the last three games ... Jordan Crasilneck (Eugene, Ore./Sheldon) and T.J. Gore (Macomb, Mich./Dakota) scored the UVM goals against Binghamton ... Junior back Connor Tobin (Fort Collins, Colo./Fort Collins) was named to the ESPN The Magazine Men’s Soccer Academic All-District I Team last week, the lone America East player selected ... Vermont’s win over Boston University was its first in 20 games since 1989 snapping an 0-15-5 streak against the Terriers ... The Catamounts will host a playoff game for the fourth straight season at Centennial Field taking on either #3 Boston University or #6 Hartford in the semifinals on Wednesday, November 14 at 1:30 p.m.