CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - University at Albany's senior goalkeeper Steward Ceus (West Haverstraw, N.Y.) recorded shutouts in both games last week to earn America East Men's Soccer Player of the Week honors, while University of Vermont's Lukas Peterson (Burlington, Vt./Burlington)has garnered Rookie of the Week honors for the final weekly awards of 2008.
Ceus made 14 saves and recorded a pair of shutouts in as many games to lead the Great Danes to the No. 2 seed and a bye in the first round of the America East Championship. Ceus tied his career-high with nine saves in a 3-0 win at Maine on Wednesday and made five stops in a scoreless tie against Vermont on Sunday. The lone goalkeeper named to the College Soccer News National Team of the Week on Monday, Ceus also set program records for career shutouts (19) and saves (325). He leads America East with 6.08 saves per game and ranks second in save percentage (.859).
Peterson, a freshman midfilder, scored the game-winning goal, the first of his career, in Vermont’s 1-0 win over Hartford on Wednesday. The victory guaranteed Vermont a home game in the America East Championship for the fifth straight year. Peterson, a freshman midfielder, also assisted on the game-winner in a 1-0 win over Maine on October 25 and has appeared in 13 games with one start during his first season in Burlington.
The Men's Soccer
Championship gets underway on Saturday with a pair of quarterfinal contests.
Fifth-seeded Hartford will travel to Burlington to face No. 4 Vermont at 1 p.m.,
while No. 6 New Hampshire faces No. 3 Binghamton at Bearcats Sports Complex at 7
p.m. The winner of Binghamton and New Hampshire will face No. 2 Albany in one
semifinal on Wednesday, Nov. 12 at 1 p.m. Top-seeded Boston University will host
the winner of Hartford and Vermont in the other semifinal on November 12 at 7
p.m. The championship game will be played on Saturday, Nov. 15 or Sunday, Nov.
16 at the higher seed.
Team Notebooks
Albany (12-3-2, 5-1-2 America East) went 1-0-1 this past week ... The Great Danes won at Maine, 3-0, on Oct. 29, and played Vermont to a scoreless draw at home in the regular season finale on Nov. 2 ... Despite winning just three matches last season and being picked eighth in the league’s preseason poll, the Great Danes earned the second seed, which matches a program best, for the upcoming postseason tournament ... UAlbany will enter the tournament riding a seven-game unbeaten streak, which is a Division I program record ... The last time the Great Danes lost was on Oct. 8 in a 3-0 decision at home versus Binghamton ... Steward Ceus (West Haverstraw, N.Y./North Rockland) set two Division I program records for career shutouts and career saves against Maine ... He now has 19 shutouts and 325 saves in his career ... Claudio Dantas (Orlando, Fla./Crystal Lake/Jefferson College) ended the regular season with a conference-best 28 points on nine goals and 10 assists ... Dantas matched the all-time single-season school record for assists with 10 when he set up the first goal against Maine, Dantas equaled the all-time Division I single-season program standard when he scored his ninth goal of the season before halftime ... In the Vermont match, the Great Dane defense recorded two team saves in the 34th minute ... UAlbany will host a semifinal match in the America East Tournament at 1 p.m. on Nov. 12 ... The Great Danes will host the winner of the quarterfinal match between Binghamton and New Hampshire.
Binghamton (10-5-3, 5-3-0 America East) is the No. 3 seed heading into the America East Tournament and will face No. 6 New Hampshire on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Bearcats Sports Complex in a first round game. It will mark a rematch of the 2004 first round game in which the two teams played to a scoreless draw at the old West Gym Field. The Bearcats, however, won the decisive penalty kick shootout 3-2 ... Binghamton has been a top-three seed in each of the past six seasons. After winning the past two America East regular season titles, the Bearcats are a No. 3 for the first time since 2005 ... Binghamton is 0-0-2 in first round games, having also played Boston to a 1-1 draw at home in 2005. Once again, however, the Bearcats won the decisive shootout 5-4 ... the Bearcats are 5-1-5 all time in America East Tournament games and have advanced to the past five conference finals.
Boston University (9-5-3, 6-1-1 America East) and 24th-year head coach Neil Roberts won their ninth career America East regular season title after defeating Hartford, 2-0, at home on Saturday ... They previously won the title in 2004, 2001, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1991, 1990 and 1988 ... Terriers enter the AE tournament as the No. 1 seed and are currently riding a seven-game unbeaten streak ... They have outscored opponents, 12-2, during that span ... Senior Jon Jonsson (Hafnarfjordur, Iceland/University of Iceland) recorded his second career goal and game-winner against the Hawks off a pass from the team’s assist leader Michael Bustamante (Chelsea, Mass./Chelsea) ... The freshman now has eight assists on the year ... Junior Shaun Taylor added his team-leading ninth goal in the 89th minute with assistance from freshman Ben Berube (Somerset, Mass./Somerset) ... Senior Hrafn Davidsson (Reykjavik, Iceland/University of Iceland) recorded three saves in the game and now has six solo shutouts this season and two combined with classmate Joe Cullaro (New York, N.Y./Clarkstown South) ... Team entered the week at No. 24 in the latest NCAA RPI rankings, highest in the conference ... Will next host the winner of the Hartford/Vermont quarterfinal game on Wednesday, Nov. 12 at Nickerson Field ... Start time is set for 7 p.m.
Hartford (7-7-3, 3-4-1 America East) was shutout in two conference games this week to close out the 2008 regular season, falling 1-0 to Vermont on Wednesday and 2-0 to Boston University on Saturday ... After beginning America East conference play with three straight victories, the Hawks have not seen a win since on October 11 ... During this span, Hartford has dropped four games while settling for one tie ... Hartford has been shutout in four of its last five games ... On Wednesday, Hartford and Vermont battled through 68 minutes of scoreless soccer until Catamounts’ rookie Lukas Peterson found the back of the net mid-way through the second period ... Chances to score were far and between, but freshman Patrick Boucher (Cromwell, Conn./Cromwell) saw the Hawks’ best scoring opportunity for the equalizer just two minutes after Vermont’s goal ... Hartford had the better of the play in the first half, taking seven shots to Vermont’s five, but the Catamount defense prevented the Hawks from getting close to the goal ... On Saturday, the Hawks put up eight shots against the Terriers, but could not get anything past Boston goalkeeper Hrafn Davidsson ... Ivan Guarin (Pereira, Colombia/White Plains/Herkimer CC), Carlos Villa (Las Conchas, Guatemela/Arrayanes/San Jacinto College) and Boucher led the team with two shots each ... Hartford closed out the 2008 regular season with 10 points for a fifth place finish in the conference standings, and will face #4 Vermont on Saturday in the quarterfinals of the America East Conference tournament in Burlington.
Maine (5-9-2, 2-5-1 America East) split a pair of games on the week... The Black Bears finished just one point shy of tying for sixth place in the America East standings and a playoff berth for the first time since the 2003 season... Maine fell to Albany 3-0, before rebounding to defeat Binghamton 1-0 on Maine’s Senior Day... In Maine’s 1-0 victory over Binghamton, Jake Ostrov (Saratoga Springs, N.Y./Manhattan) scored the game-winning goal... It was the second goal of the season for Ostrov and first game-winner... Maine’s Nemanja Kostic (New Belgrade, Serbia/Virginia Intermont) recorded his fourth shutout of the season... Maine as a team has five shutouts on the season... Maine’s five wins on the season are the most since the 2004 season when Maine also won five games... Maine’s five game-winning goals have been scored by five different Black Bears... Maine’s defense continues to be much-improved... The Black Bears have allowed 18 goals in 16 games this season, as opposed to last year when the Black Bears had allowed 38 goals in 16 games... Maine has allowed a season-high three goals just once... Maine will host Harvard on Wednesday, Nov. 5... It is a make-up game from Sept. 28 when a hurricane was projected to hit Maine... Before the game on Sunday, Maine honored senior Corey Sinclair (Richland, Wash./Walla Walla Community College), Kyle LeDuc (Topsham, Maine/Providence) and Dimitri Anastasiou (Colchester, Conn./Bacon Academy).
UMBC (6-9-2, 1-6-1) came within four minutes of clinching a spot in the America East Conference Championships...four minutes later, their post-season chances had disappeared into the brisk New Hampshire night...the Wildcats rallied for a 3-2 win over the Retrievers and it was UNH that earned the sixth seed into the tournament...UMBC held a 2-1 lead in the waning moments of the game and a Retriever win, coupled with Maine and Stony Brook losses would have given UMBC that sixth spot...but UNH scored twice in the final 4:05 remaining in the game to deny UMBC its first road win of the season... the Retrievers took a 1-0 lead in the 17th minute of play as freshman forward Andrew Bulls (Millersville, Md./McDonogh) scored his eighth goal of the season as he took a centering pass from senior midfielder Kevin Gnatiko (Montgomery Village, Md./Watkins Mill) and scored from inside the box...UMBC took a 2-1 lead midway through the second half as Gnatiko scored his first goal of the year just 85 seconds after the game was tied...he took a feed from sophomore midfielder John Paul Waraksa (Media, Pa.) and lobbed a shot over UNH netminder Colin O’Donnell from 25 yards away...but the Retrievers continued to be plagued by second half goals as they allowed 11 scores in their six conference losses in the final stanza... the Retrievers dropped the finale, 2-0 at Stony Brook... senior goalkeeper Steve King (Baltimore, Md./Archbishop Curley) made nine saves in his final game and finished his career with 266 saves, fourth in school history... Bulls’ eight goals is the most for a UMBC freshman since Derek McElligott scored 12 in 2001.
New Hampshire (7-5-4, 2-4-2), down by a goal to UMBC with five minutes left in regulation, notched two goals in less than two minutes to secure the final spot in the America East tournament... Sophomore Dylan George (Bangor, Maine/Bridgton Academy) tallied a goal and an assist to propel the Wildcats to a 3-2 must-win victory over UMBC on Senior Night... Trailing 2-1 with 4:05 to play, senior Richie Weinrebe (East Providence, R.I./East Providence) received a picture-perfect pass from A.J. DuBois (Acworth, N.H./Fall Mountain Regional) and fired it into the right corner to earn his first non-penalty kick goal of his career and even the score, 2-2...One minute, 19 seconds later, George broke the 2-2 tie when his second scoring attempt found the back of the net... Chris Banks (Westborough, Mass./Westborough) tallied his team-leading seventh goal of the season to get the Wildcats on the board and even the score, 1-1... The Wildcats, who are seeded No. 6 in the America East tournament, tallied a season-high 20 shots during the game, while sophomore goalkeeper Colin O’Donnell (Springfield, Mass./Minnechaug Reginoal) made four saves in the win for the Wildcats... New Hampshire will wrap up the regular season with a trip to intra-state rival Dartmouth on Tuesday, Nov. 4... The Wildcats will travel to face No. 3-seeded Binghamton in the first round of the America East tournament on Saturday, Nov. 8... Gametime for both upcoming games are scheduled for 7 p.m.
Stony Brook (3-12-4, 1-4-3 America East) split its two games last week... The Seawolves fell to Binghamton, 1-0 and were eliminated from the playoffs... They came back on Sunday to beat UMBC, 2-0, in the 2008 season finale... Sophomore Michele Aquino (Franklin Square, N.Y./Carey) and freshman Tom Butler (Birmingham, England/Bromsgrove School) tallied goals for Stony Brook, which won its first game since September 12. Senior Dan Zori (Levittown, N.Y./Kellenberg) recorded his first career win in his first career start.
Vermont (8-3-7, 4-1-3 America East) blanked Hartford, 1-0, Wednesday at Centennial Field and played a scoreless double overtime tie at Albany Sunday to finish in a tie for third place in the regular season standings ... The defending America East Champion Catamounts will be the fourth seed in the conference tournament and will host a home postseason game for the fifth straight season ... UVM will be making its 13th appearance in the America East Men’s Soccer Championship and will bid for its fifth title. In addition to last season, the Cats were champions in 1989, 1990 and 2000 ... Vermont’s strength heading into the postseason is its strong team defense led by back Connor Tobin (Fort Collins, Colo./Fort Collins) that allowed only three goals in eight conference games with five shutouts and a 0.35 goals against average ... In its last 18 games against conference foes, Vermont has given up only six goals ... The first career goal for freshman Lukas Petersen (Burlington, Vt./Burlington) was the game-winner in the 1-0 win over Hartford ... UVM’s eight game-winning goals have come from seven different players ... Jordan Crasilneck (Eugene, Ore./Sheldon) picked up an assist against Hartford, his 10th of the season to tie the Vermont single-season mark. He has 25 career assists, one off the UVM all-time record ... Tobin and Crasilneck were named to the ESPN The Magazine Men’s Soccer Academic All-District Team this week. Tobin, the 2007 America East Men’s Soccer Scholar-Athlete, was named to the first team while Crasilneck earned second team honors. It is the sixth straight year a Catamount has been named to men’s soccer all-district team ... Vermont hosts fifth-seeded Hartford in Saturday’s quarterfinals. The two teams have met three previous times in the post season with UVM holding a 2-1 record.