CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Three players that scored game-winning overtime goals are this week's America East men's soccer award winners. UMBC's Andrew Bulls (Millersville, Md./McDonogh) and Stony Brook's Raphael Abreu (Abreu (New York, N.Y./Eleanor Roosevelt) shared Player of the Week honors, while New Hampshire's Steve Palumbo (Kingston, N.H./Sanborn Regional) earned Rookie of the Week accolades. The award winners for the week ending Oct. 24 were announced Monday afternoon.
Bulls propelled UMBC to a pair of wins last week by tallying six points. The junior midfielder scored Wednesday to give the Retrievers a 2-1 win over Penn State, who was ranked 23rd in the College Soccer News Poll. He then tallied the game-winning goal and two assists in a 3-0 victory over Hartford Saturday. On the season, Bulls leads the league with 12 assists and ranks second with 18 points.
Abreu single-handedly led Stony Brook to a 2-1 overtime win over Binghamton Saturday by scoring both goals. With his team trailing 1-0, the sophomore striker tied the game in the 39th minute and tallied the game winner with 33 seconds left in the first overtime period. The win lifted Stony Brook into a tie for second place in the conference standings with Binghamton and UMBC. Abreu ranks seventh among league leaders with five goals this season.
Palumbo delivered a much needed victory for the Wildcats with his double-overtime score against first-place Boston University Saturday. The goal, which gave UNH a 2-1 win, came in the 109th minute and snapped his team’s six game winless streak. Palumbo, a freshman forward, also assisted on the first goal, which was UNH’s first in seven games. He ranks second among Wildcats with six points on two goals and two assists this season.
With just one week remaining in the regular season, only Boston University (12 points) has clinched an America East Championship berth thus far. The Terriers can lock up the regular-season title with a win over Binghamton Wednesday. Only four points separate the other seven teams so plenty remains at stake in each teams' final two games.
Team Notes
Albany (5-8-1, 1-3-1 America East) earned a 1-0 victory over Vermont in its last home match of the season at Varsity Field on Saturday, Oct. 23 … With the victory, the Great Danes snapped a 12-match winless skid in conference play that dated back to the 2008 season … The team most recently defeated Maine by a 3-0 decision on Oct. 29, 2008 … Sander Anker (Enschede, Netherlands/Roc van Twente), David Burke (Clifton Park, N.Y./Shenendehowa), Andrew Fojanesi (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y./Hendrick Hudson), Milos Jankovic (Belgrade, Serbia/Secondary School of Sport), Bo Jelovac (Belgrade, Serbia/Sveti Sava School), Shaun Kane (Stirlingshire, Scotland/Saint Modans), Darko Knezevic (Delmar, N.Y./Secondary School of Sport) and Ian Peach (South Hempstead, N.Y./South Side) were recognized for their contributions to the program prior to the contest … Burke netted his first career goal in the 12th minute to give the Great Danes all the insurance they needed to pull out the victory over the Catamounts … Peach and Anthony DeSalvo (Cicero, N.Y./Cicero-North Syracuse) were credited with assists on the play … Goalkeeper Scott Kessler (Jericho, N.Y./Syosset/Marist) earned his first shutout in a UAlbany uniform by turning away five shots ... He previously made three saves in a 2-0 win over Stony Brook on Sept. 24, 2008 as a true freshman at Marist … UAlbany, which ended the week just one point out of sixth place in the league standings for the final playoff spot, concludes its regular season on the road against New Hampshire on Wednesday, Oct. 27 at 2:30 p.m. and Boston University on Saturday, Oct. 30 at 2 p.m.
Binghamton (4-5-4, 2-1-2 America East) saw its eight-game unbeaten streak end with a 2-1 overtime loss against Stony Brook on Saturday night at the Bearcats Sports Complex. In the process, the Bearcats lost their first conference game in 14 matches since moving into their current facility three years ago ... In addition, it was the Bearcats first home regular-season loss since a 1-0 double-overtime decision on Oct. 5, 2005 at the old West Gym Field ... Binghamton has now played in three consecutive overtime games, something that last happened Oct. 6-13, 2007 ... Sophomore back Austin Hughes (Delmar, N.Y./Bethlehem) scored his first career goal in the match against the Seawolves ... Junior midfielder Ryan Walter (Snyder, N.Y./Nichols) collected his fourth assist on the play.
Boston University (9-4-1, 4-1-0 America East) saw its six-game winning streak snapped with a 2-1 overtime loss at New Hampshire ... The game marked the program’s first overtime loss since 2008 ... Finishing ahead in shots, 17-9, the Terriers rallied to tie the game in the second half when freshman Derek McCaffrey (Groton, Mass./Groton-Dunstable) scored his first career goal off an assist from junior Michael Bustamante (Chelsea, Mass./Chelsea) ... The Terriers were unable to clear the ball near the end of overtime, and UNH took advantage to walk away with the win ... Even with the loss, they remain atop the league standings and can clinch the program’s 10th regular-season title with a victory over Binghamton on Wednesday night at Nickerson Field ... Following the game against the Bearcats, the Terriers will conclude the regular season on Saturday against Albany ... They will honor six seniors before the start of the contest, including 2007 AE Rookie of the Year and 2009 first-team all-conference honoree Aaron O’Neal (Virginia Beach, Va./Kellam).
Hartford (5-8-0, 2-3-0 America East) finished the week 1-1-0 with an 2-1, overtime home victory over Army (Oct. 20) and a 3-0 loss at UMBC (Oct. 23) ... Against Army, sophomore James Stamopoulos (Mississauga, Ontario/Port Credit Secondary) provided the game-winner for the second time in as many games, this time reaching the back of the net three minutes into overtime to give the Hawks the 2-1 win ... For the second-straight time, Stamopoulos’ heroics were set up by senior midfielder Sam Groves (Sutton, Mass./Worcester Academy) ... Stamopoulos is tied with Patrick Boucher (Cromwell, Conn./Cromwell) for the team lead in goals with three ... Hartford outshot Army 9-4 in the contest ... Hartford boasts a 5-1 record on its home field ... Freshman Tomas Boyle (Kildare, Ireland/Salesian) netted his first career goal and the first score of the game against Army ... At UMBC, the Retrievers took control early and shut the door on the Hawks, scoring three goals in the first 40 minutes of the game ... The Hawks, who outsho their opponent 11-10, held the Retrievers scoreless for the match’s final 50 minutes ... Hartford is 0-7 on the road and has only scored four goals away from West Hartford this season ... With two games remaining on the conference slate, Hartford is still alive for the upcoming AE tournament ... The fifth place Hawks return home for a senior night matchup with Stony Brook on Wednesday (Oct. 27) before closing out the regular season at Vermont on Saturday (Oct. 30).
UMBC (8-4-2, 2-1-2 America East) is now 4-1-2 in October after wins at No. 23 (College Soccer News Poll) Penn State (2-1, OT) and vs. Hartford (3-0) this week ... After a 9-0-0 September in 2009, UMBC slumped to 3-5-0 in October ... For the second consecutive game, junior midfielder Andrew Bulls (Millersville, Md./McDonogh) scored the game’s first goal and then added assists on corner kicks on the next two as the host Retrievers blanked Hartford, 3-0, in an America East Conference contest on Saturday ... UMBC had been blanked and outscored, 5-0, in its previous two meetings vs. the Hawks... The Retrievers scored in the 12th minute and added goals in the 25th and 40th minutes of play ... Defenders Daniel Welsh (Fife, Scotland/Stewart’s Melville College) and Liam Paddock (Worcestershire, England/Chase Technology College) connected on headers off of a pair of Bulls’ corner kicks ... The goal by Paddock, a sophomore, was the first of his career ... Bulls has 12 assists on the season, surpassing the 11 he accumulated in 2009 ... He becomes the first player in school history to record 25 goals (26) and 25 assists (25) and his 77 points are now tied for seventh on the UMBC all-time scoring list ... UMBC improved to 6-0-1 when scoring the game’s first goal and 6-0-0 when leading at halftime ... The Retrievers posted one of their biggest wins in program history, a 2-1 overtime win at No. 23 Penn State (College Soccer News) on Oct. 20 ... The win is UMBC’s first over a team in the national rankings since a 2-0 win over No. 17 Maryland (Soccer Times) in 2000... Sophomore midfielder Milo Kapor (Woodbridge, Ont./Emily Carr) scored the game-winning goal, a 30-yard shot from the left side which hooked into the right-side netting, with 1:11 to play in the first overtime period as UMBC extended its road unbeaten streak to four ... Two of Kapor’s three career goals have been game-winners in big spots on the road ... Prior to his dramatic score at PSU, the Canadian blasted in the eventual GWG in the 41st minute in the 2-1 America East semifinal victory at UNH in 2009... The win over Hartford assures UMBC’s 15th winning season in Head Coach Pete Caringi’s 20 years at the helm ... The Retrievers conclude the regular season at home vs. Vermont on Wednesday, then play the final league game of the America East schedule at Stony Brook on Sunday in a rematch of last season’s title game.
New Hampshire (6-3-5, 1-2-2 America East) finished the week 1-0-1 with a win against Boston University (Oct. 23) and a tie against Holy Cross College (Oct. 27) … Steven Palumbo (Kingston, N.H.) tallied a goal and an assist to lead UNH to a 2-1 win over Boston U. in double-overtime … The loss was Boston U.’s first in conference play … The freshman midfielder scored UNH’s second goal in the contest, ending a deadlocked tie with just under two minutes to play in double-overtime, giving the ‘Cats their first win six games and their first in conference … New Hampshire has played in nine overtime games this year, including eight in double-overtime … Palumbo’s goal is his second game-winning goal this season, notching his first of the season against Central Connecticut State (Sept. 6) … The freshman ranks second on the team with six points on two goals and two assists … Brad Hilton (Merrimack, N.H.) scored UNH’s first goal in the contest … Hilton leads the team with eight points on three goals and two assists … Against Holy Cross, the ‘Cats battled to a 0-0 double-overtime tie, as senior goalkeeper Chris Devine (Hampton, N.H.) tallied a season-high five saves on his way to recording his first career shutout … This season Devine has compiled a 1-0-1 record, while posting a 0.38 goals against average, a .900 save percentage and nine saves … In addition to Devine, the Wildcats have also gotten tremendous production in net from senior goalkeeper Colin O’Donnell (Hampden, Mass.), as tops the America East in goals against average (0.53), save percentage (.877) and shutouts (6) … He also ranks third in both saves (50) and saves per game (4.17) … Additionally, the netminder ranks sixth and eighth nationally in save percentage and goals against average, respectively … The Wildcats return to action Wednesday, October 27, when they take on Albany on Senior Day at 2:30 p.m. at Lewis Fields.
Stony Brook (8-5-3, 2-1-2 America East) improved to 7-1-3 over its last 11 matches after winning at Binghamton 2-1 in overtime despite trailing 1-0 ... It was the program’s first win at Binghamton since 2001 ... The comeback win was SBU’s second of the season ... The Seawolves moved into a three-way tie for second place in America East with Binghamton and UMBC ... Raphael Abreu (New York, N.Y.) was all the offense the Seawolves needed last week as he provided both goals in the victory over the Bearcats ... The sophomore forward netted the tying goal in the 39th minute and then kicked in the game-winner in the 100th minute off a rebound shot from Mehdi Belakehal (St.-Hubert, Quebec)...Wilber Bonilla (Brentwood, N.Y.) and Kyle Schlesinger (Selden, N.Y.) each tallied assists on Abreu’s first goal of the match ... Abreu now has five goals on the season, tying him with Berian Gobeil Cruz (Montreal, Quebec) for second place on the team...sophomore keeper Stefan Manz (Bronx, N.Y.) allowed his first goal in his last 365 minutes played, but made four saves and lowered his goals against average to 1.02 ... He has allowed only three goals over his last six matches ... Stony Brook can clinch a spot in the America East Championship with a win at Hartford Wednesday ... The Seawolves will celebrate their three outgoing seniors Sunday on Senior Day vs. UMBC.
Vermont (6-6-4, 1-3-1 America East) moved to 6-6-4 overall and 1-3-1 in league play after dropping a 1-0 decision at Albany on Saturday ... The Catamounts are still in the hunt for a playoff spot with two regular season games remaining ... Junior Nick O’Neill (Peoria, Ill./Peoria Notre Dame) continues to lead the team in scoring with 15 points on six goals and three assists ... The Catamounts have struggled to find the back of the net in the last four games and has gone scoreless over the last 380 minutes ... UVM wraps up the regular season traveling to UMBC on Wednesday (Oct. 27) for a 7 p.m. match and then hosting Hartford on Saturday (Oct. 30) at 1 p.m. ... Prior to the start of the Hartford match, Vermont’s senior class of Kyle Luetkehans (LaGrange, Ill//Lyons Township) and Xan Rousselle (Morrisville, Vt./Peoples Academy) will be honored.