CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Binghamton's Jason Stenta (Binghamton, N.Y./Chenango Valley) has been named America East Player of the Week, while Maine's Alex Rickett (Northville, Mich./Northville) receives America East Rookie of the Week. The awards were announced Tuesday (Sept. 4).
Stenta earns player of the week honors in week one after posting a pair of 1-0 shutouts. For his performance he was named the Most Outstanding Defensive Player at the Radford Highlander Classic. In total, he recorded five saves in the process. He now has 10.0 shutouts for his career. This is Stenta’s third player of the week honor in the past two seasons.
Rickett scored the lone goal of the game, 6:29 into the first ovetime, to give the Black Bears a 1-0 win over UMass in the season opener. With the win, Maine broke a 22-game losing streak and 26-game winless streak. Rickett had two shots in the game. He received a pass from senior Jimmy Velas and beat the UMass keeper with a shot to the far lower corner.
TEAM-BY-TEAM NOTEBOOKS
Albany Great Danes
Albany (1-1-0, 0-0-0 America East) split its first two games of the season at the Nike/Alltel Classic in Richmond, Virginia... The win snaps a four-game losing streak dating back to Oct. 13, 2006... The Great Danes defeated Adelphi, 2-1, in the season opener on Aug. 31... The Panthers took a 1-0 lead just over one minute into the game before freshman forward Shaun Kane (Stirlingshire, Scotland/St. Modans) scored the first goal of his career in the 15th minute to knot the score at one... Junior goalkeeper Steward Ceus (West Haverstraw, N.Y./North Rockland) was credited with his first career assist on the play... Junior captain Erik DiLorenzo (Bolton, Ontario/Robert F. Hall CSS) scored the gamewinner in the 56th minute for the Great Danes on an assist from freshman Colin Veney (Liverpool, N.Y./Liverpool)... Head coach Johan Aarnio earned his 99th career victory (58th at Albany) with the defeat of Adelphi... The Great Danes were defeated by Virginia Commonwealth 4-0 on Sept. 2... VCU took a 1-0 lead in the 20th minute on a penalty kick and went up 2-0 shortly before intermission... The Rams found the back of the net 25 seconds apart in the 84th and 85th minutes deliver the final score of 4-0... The Great Danes go on the road for two games this week in the Raiders Adidas Fall Classic in Hamilton, N.Y., taking on Cornell on Sept. 7 and Colgate on Sept. 9.
Binghamton Bearcats
Binghamton (2-0-0, 0-0-0 America East) is off to its best start since 2004... The Bearcats won the Radford Highlander Classic this past weekend with a pair of 1-0 decisions... Freshman forward Josh Sailar (Maine, N.Y./Maine-Endwell) scored the lone goal against Radford on Saturday and senior midfielder Matt Narode (Glenmont, N.Y./Bethlehem) notched the game-winner on Sunday against No. 30 Winthrop... America East Player of the Week sophomore goalkeeper Jason Stenta
(Binghamton, N.Y./Chenango Valley) was named the Most Outstanding Defensive Player at the Radford Highlander Classic... He recorded a pair of solo shutouts and made five saves... Stenta now has 10.0 career shutouts... Binghamton's win over Radford marked the first time that it has defeated a nationally-ranked opponent since upsetting then No. 15 Fairleigh Dickinson 1-0 in the first round of the 2003 NCAA Tournament... The last time the Bearcats had shutout their first two opponents was 2003, when they blanked Mt. St. Mary's (Md.) and Colgate by identical 2-0 scores.
Boston University Terriers
Boston University (1-1-0, 0-0-0 America East) split a pair of games this weekend with cross-town rivals Boston College and Northeastern... The Terriers couldn’t convert on any of their chances against BC on Sept. 1 in the season-opener when the Eagles earned a 1-0 victory... Junior forward Petur Sigurdsson (Hafnarfjordur, Iceland) scored twice within 30 seconds to put Boston U. up early 2-0 against Northeastern... The Huskies nearly broke the shutout but junior back Dan Schultz (Cincinnati, Ohio/Seven Hills School) made a defensive save for BU... The Terriers added an insurance goal late in the game when a pair of freshmen connected in the 73rd minute... Forward Aaron O’Neal (Virginia Beach, Va./Kellam) buried a pass from Matthew Shea (Boston, Mass./Hanover) for his first career goal... The Terriers next participate in the Brown Invitational, taking on Fordham Friday, Sept. 7, at 5 p.m. and Santa Clara on Sunday, Sept. 9 at noon.
Hartford Hawks
Hartford (1-0, 0-0 America East) opened the 2007 season with a win over in-state rival Central Connecticut in New Britain... The Hawks early lead came in the 17th minute when a failed clear attempt from the Blue Devils Scott Melville led to an own goal... The play began with a shot from senior Daniel Antunez (Flint, Texas/Santa Ana) that was saved by CCSU keeper Paul Armstrong, but the clearing attempt by Melville led to the own goal... The Hawks second goal of the game came in the 81st minute when Gary Muir (Glasgow, Scotland/Louisburg JC) connected with Andreas Blamo (Monrovia, Liberia/Hall) for the team’s first goal of the new season... Muir took a cross from Blamo inside the box to score on the left side of the net from 10 yards out... The Hawks will play two games this week, first traveling to Newburgh, NY to take on the Marist Red Foxes at Mount Saint Mary’s College... Hartford will then play the first of nine home games on Friday, September 7 at 6:00 p.m. when they take on St. Peter’s.
Maine Black Bears
Maine (1-0-0, 0-0-0 America East) opened the season with a 1-0 victory over UMass in overtime on Friday afternoon... The win snapped Maine's 22-game losing streak and its 26-game winless streak... The game also marked the debut of Maine head coach Pat Laughlin, who was a four-year letterwinner for the Black Bears, graduating in 1992... Freshman Alex Rickett (Northville, Mich./Northville HS) notched the game-winning goal for the Black Bears 6:29 into overtime... Rickett
received a pass from senior Jimmy Velas (Falmouth, Maine/Falmouth) and beat the UMass keeper with a shot that went into the far lower corner... Maine keeper Nemanja Kostic (New Belgrade, Serbia/Nikola Tesla School/Virginia Intermont), a transfer from Virginia Intermont, was outstanding for the Black Bears... He made seven saves to earn the shutout... It is the first shutout by a Maine keeper since Chad Mongeon (2002-2005) blanked Binghamton in double overtime on October
25, 2003... The Black Bears will host Holy Cross on Wednesday, September 5 in Yarmouth, Maine before hitting the road for four straight games.
UMBC Retrievers
UMBC (2-0-0, 0-0-0 America East) captured the Anders Soccer Classic with a 2-0 victory over Temple at Navy’s Glenn Warner Soccer Facility... The Retrievers, 2-1 winners over Air Force on Friday, captured the title of the season-opening tournament... UMBC is off to its first 2-0 start since opening the 2001 season at 3-0... As in the win over Air Force, the two UMBC goals were the first career scores by Retriever players... Philippe Bissohong (Silver Spring, Md./Springbrook), a senior defender, scored in the first half and Ime Umoh (Baltimore, Md./Calvert Hall/Methodist College), a sophomore transfer, contributed an insurance goal in the latter stages of the game... Freshmen B.J. Quigley (Baltimore, Md./Archbishop Curley) and Levi Houapeu (Germantown, Md./Watkins Mill) scored in Friday’s victory... The two goals by Quigley and Houapeu occurred 26 seconds apart in the 74th minute and erased a 1-0 Air Force lead... In the win over Temple, UMBC recorded its first shutout since a 3-0 blanking at Boston University late in the 2005 season...junior netminder Steve King (Baltimore, Md./Archbishop Curley) recorded five saves to do the job, ending a streak of 20 straight games without a UMBC clean sheet... UMBC started three freshmen (Quigley, Houapeu, defender Chris Williams (Baltimore, Md./Calvert Hall) in the first two games and eight of the 17 players who saw action are newcomers to the program... the Retrievers open the home schedule this weekend as they host the adidas Kick-Off Classic... UMBC faces St. Francis (N.Y.) on Friday and Iona on Sunday.
New Hampshire Wildcats
New Hampshire (0-1-1, 0-0-0 America East) battled to a scoreless tie against No. 14 University of Washington at the Nike Portland Invitational this past Friday... Senior goalkeeper Mike Jenne (Vernon, N.Y./Whitesboro Central) recorded his a shutout in his collegiate debut; tallying four saves... Junior midfielder Scott Rowling (Richboro, Pa./Council Rock North) had multiple scoring opportunities for the Wildcats, including one key shot from the top of the box at the beginning of the second overtime period... Rowling finished the game with a team-leading four shots, including three on goal... New Hampshire then fell to the host-school Portland, 3-0, on
Sunday afternoon... Jenne, who gave up all three goals, was relieved in net during the 78th minute by freshman Colin O’Donnell (Springfield, Mass./Minnechaug Regional)... O’Donnell did not face a shot in his first collegiate game... The Wildcats return East to face Michigan State on Fri., Sept. 7 and Massachusetts on Sun., Sept. 9 at Vermont’s 17th annual Smith Barney Nike Soccer Classic.
Stony Brook Seawolves
Stony Brook (0-2-0, 0-0-0 America East) went 0-2 last week to start the season. In the 2007 season opener at Seton Hall, Maurice Brown (Clarendon, Jamaica/James Madison) had a game-high seven shots in his collegiate debut but Seton Hall triumphed 2-0... Stony Brook had two terrific scoring chances in the first half when Brown's header hit the post and Michael Palacio's (Long Beach, N.Y./Long Beach) rebound was saved... Stony Brook outshot Seton Hall, 18-10... In the game against UConn, Stony Brook lost 3-0... Collin Geoghegan (Lindenhurst, N.Y./Lindenhurst) was the only Seawolf to record a shot on goal... Stony Brook's lone game this week is its home opener against Long Island-rival Hofstra... Kick-off is set for 7 pm.
Vermont Catamounts
Vermont (1-1-0, 0-0-0 America East) opened its season splitting a pair of games at two perennial West Coast Conference and national powers... Vermont blanked San Francisco, 1-0, in its opener Friday before falling to fifth-ranked Santa Clara Sunday... USF advanced to the second round of the NCAA College Cup last year while Santa Clara reached the national quarterfinals... A goal by sophomore forward T.J. Gore (Macomb, Mich./Dakota) two minutes into the second half was the difference in the win over USF... Justin Geibel (Boxford, Mass./Masconomet Regional) picked up an assist... Gore, an America East All-Conference first-team selection as a freshman, now has three game winning goals, all in 1-0 decisions... Goalkeeper Roger Scully (East Lyme, Conn./East Lyme) and back Connor Tobin (Fort Collins, Colo./Fort Collins) led a strong team defensive effort against San Francisco with Scully earning his ninth career shutout... Vermont has opened the season with a victory in each of last four seasons... The Catamounts host the 17th annual Smith Barney Nike Soccer Classic this weekend at Centennial Field... Following the New Hampshire-Michigan State game Friday at 2:00pm, UVM takes on Massachusetts at 4:30 p.m. in its home opener... Sunday, UNH faces UMass at 11:00 a.m. and Vermont hosts the Spartans at 1:15 p.m.