CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Five America East men's soccer teams will stand at .500 or better heading into conference play this weekend and two players who lifted their teams to that mark last week have earned the league's weekly honors. Stony Brook's Leonardo Fernandes (Sao Paulo, Brazil/North Babylon) led Stony Brook to two wins and earned Player of the Week accolades while New Hampshire's Travis Worra (Lancaster, Pa./Hempfield) picked up Rookie of the Week accolades after pacing his team to its third straight win. The award winners for the week ending September 25 were announced Monday afternoon.
Fernandes racked up six points in leading Stony Brook to a pair of victories last week. The reigning America East Midfielder of the Year tallied an assist in a 4-1 over Fairfield on Tuesday, then scored twice in a 4-3 come-from-behind win against Temple on Sunday. With his team trailing 3-1 in the second half against the Owls, Fernandes converted a penalty kick in the 48th minute, then sent home a corner kick in the 74th minute to tie the game. Fernandes leads Stony Brook and is tied for third among league leaders in points (8) and goals (3).
Worra recorded a pair of shutout victories and earned MVP honors at the UNH Nike Fall Classic last week to earn his second straight Rookie of the Week honor. The freshman goalkeeper made two saves in a 1-0 win over Air Force on Friday and then stopped three shots in a 1-0 victory over Hartford on Sunday. Worra, who not surrendered a goal in over his 309 minutes in net, has lowered his goal-against average to 1.14 and is tied for second among league leaders with three shutouts.
Four teams will play non-conference games before league play starts up this weekend. Stony Brook will visit New Hampshire on Friday, while Binghamton visits Vermont, Hartford hosts Boston U. and UMBC welcomes Albany Saturday.
Team Notes
Albany (4-4-0) dropped two matches last week against Towson, 4-1, on Sept. 20, and Siena, 1-0, on Sept. 25 ... Freshman midfielder Pomare Te Anau (Auckland, New Zealand/Mt. Albert Grammar) tallied his third goal of the season vs. Towson ... Te Anau now is second on the team with nine points (3 goals, 3 assists) ... Junior goalkeeper Scott Kessler (Jericho, N.Y./Syosset/Marist) saw his first action of the season in net vs. Towson ... Kessler recorded six saves on 10 scoring chances vs. Towson ... Senior goalkeeper Adrian Foncette (Arima, Trinidad/Fatima) tallied four saves vs. Siena ... Foncette, in his career, has 221 saves and is fourth all-time in UAlbany history ... He now trails Bouna Coundoul (271), Trevor Serraro (312), and Steward Ceus (329) for the most saves all-time at UAlbany… The Great Danes begin their America East schedule on Sunday, Oct. 1 vs. UMBC in Baltimore, Md. at 7 pm ... UMBC leads the series, 4-3-1, with the Retrievers winning the last match on Oct.13, 2010 at UAlbany, 3-1.
Binghamton (3-5-0) drew a crowd of 2,443 fans for its Homecoming battle against Adelphi on Saturday. That represents the third-largest crowd in the five-year history of the Bearcats Sports Complex and the sixth time that over 2,000 fans have come to a Binghamton home game ... Time Warner Sports televised the game against Adelphi on Saturday night, marking the fifth time since 2007 that a men’s soccer team have been aired at least on a regional level. In 2009, Fox Soccer Channel carried the Binghamton-Boston Univ. game nationally ... junior forward Jake Keegan (Stormville, N.Y./John Jay) leads Binghamton with four goals, three assists and 11 points. He now has 35 career points, which is the sixth-highest mark by a Binghamton player during the program’s 10-year Division I era. Graham Munro (2002-05) is in fifth place with 38 points ... against Adelphi, senior back Jerome Robinson (Manchester, Jamaica/West Virginia Tech) scored his first career goal. In the process, he becomes the eighth different Binghamton player to score a goal this season.
Boston University (2-5-0) faced its third ranked team of the season in No. 22 Brown and dropped a 2-0 decision on the road ... The Bears first scored in the 34th minute and added an insurance score in the 88th minute ... The Terriers were outshot, 13-8, but had a 6-4 advantage in corner kicks ... Senior Stephen Knox (Arima, Trinidad/Fatima College (HS)) led Boston U. with three shot attempts ... Freshman goalkeeper Nick Thomson (Cramlington, England/Cramlington Learning Village) had four saves, including one off a penalty kick ... The Terriers will next visit Harvard on Wednesday (Sept. 28) before opening the America East schedule at Hartford on Saturday (Oct. 1).
Hartford (2-5-2) went 1-0-1 on the week after picking up a 1-0 win at Massachusetts on Wednesday and playing Marist to a 1-1 stalemate at Alumni Stadium on Saturday ... David Bernhardsson (Tjorn, Sweden/Katrinelunds Gymnasiet/UW-Green Bay) provided the only offense of the match in the 38th minute when he connected with teammates Anthony Santaga (Green Bay, Wis./Green Bay Notre Dame Academy/UW-Green Bay) and Atobra Ampadu (Accra, Ghana/The Hotchkiss School) ... With the defeat of the Minutemen, the Hawks snapped a winless streak that spanned six games ... The squad also picked up its first win on the road since October 3, 2009 when it scored a 1-0 victory at Albany ... During that 23-month span, the Hawks posted a mark of 0-24-1 away from West Hartford ... Against the Red Foxes, Ampadu put Hartford on the scoreboard in the 41st mintue but Marist countered later in the match in the 75th minute to send the game into extra time ... Despite holding a commanding 6-1 advantage in the overtime periods, the Hawks could not find the back of the net and earned their second tie in their last three attempts ... Hartford combined to outshoot its opponents, 33-20 on the week and also held a 16-8 advantage in corner kicks ... Hartford travels to Sacred Heart on Tuesday (7:00 p.m.) before welcoming Boston University to Alumni Stadium for both teams’ America East openers on Saturday (7 p.m.).
UMBC (3-2-2) dropped a 2-0 decision at Loyola (Md.) on Wednesday before snapping a three-game winless streak with a 3-1 win at Longwood on Saturday... Senior midfielder Sean Rothe (Dundalk, Md./Archbishop Curley) and sophomore Pete Caringi III (Perry Hall, Md./Calvert Hall) scored in a 46-second span in the second half as visiting UMBC erased a 1-0 halftime deficit and went on to a 3-1 victory at Longwood (3-4-1)... Senior forward Kingsley Onwuka (Baltimore, Md./CCBC-Essex/Kenwood) added an insurance goal in the 67th minute... It was the first goal for Onwuka in a Retriever uniform... Onwuka drew a penalty kick in the first half of the game, but senior forward Andrew Bulls’ (Millersville, Md./McDonogh) game-tying attempt was saved... Rothe’s goal was his team-leading third of the season which matched his career total entering the campaign... He has three goals on just six shots... Caringi scored the game-winning goal and also posted an assist on Onwuka’s insurance goal less than four minutes later... Caringi posted his first game-winning goal of the season and the third of his career...Junior midfielder Milo Kapor (Toronto, Ont./Emily Carr) recorded two assists at Longwood, recording his first multiple-point game and UMBC’s initial multiple-assist effort of 2011... UMBC outshot Longwood, 14-11, and senior goalkeeper Dan Louisignau (Wilmington, Del./Concord/U. Virginia) picked up the win in a five-save effort...The win was UMBC’s first vs. Longwood in six all-time meetings (1-4-1)... Eight of UMBC’s nine goals this season have occured in the second half... Longwood scored the initial first half goal vs. UMBC in 2011... Freshman forward Joseph Glos (Baltimore, Md./Perry Hall) recorded his first career point with his helper on the game-winning goal at Longwood… UMBC also scored three second half goals vs. No. 1 Maryland in an eventual 4-3 double overtime loss on Sept. 13... The Retrievers play their third consecutive game on the road when they visit La Salle on Tuesday and then open the America East schedule at home when they welcome Albany on Oct. 1.
New Hampshire (4-4-0) finished its most recent week of action 2-0 ... The Wildcats claimed victories over the United States Air Force Academy (Sept. 23) and Hartwick College (Sept. 25), finishing first in the 22nd Annual Nike Fall Classic for the third straight year ... Freshman goalkeeper Travis Worra (Lancaster, Pa./Hempfield) was selected as the tournament MVP, finishing with five saves on the weekend ... He also earned his third-straight shutout in UNH’s win over Hartwick ... In merit of his superb performance he was named to the All-Tournament team, along with juniors Alex Hussein (Haverhill, Mass./Haverhill) and Jordan Thomas (Mohnton, Pa./Governor Mifflin) and sophomore Jeffrey Turner (Blandon, Pa./Fleetwood) ... UNH scored the game’s lone goal versus Hartwick in the 58th minute when Brad Hilton (Merrimack, N.H./Merrimack) serviced a ball into the box on a free kick that was redirected into the net off the foot of a Hartwick defender for an own goal ... In the previous outing Hilton punched in a goal at 62:45, lifting the ‘Cats to a 1-0 victory over Air Force ... Steven Palumbo (Kingston, N.H./Kingston) was credited with an assist on the play ... Hilton currently leads the Wildcats with six points on two goals and two assists this season ... The Wildcats are back in action when they kick off their conference slate Friday, Sept. 30 against Stony Brook (3:30 p.m.) at Lewis Fields.
Stony Brook (4-4-2) took two out of three matches last week to climb back to the .500 mark heading into conference play ... both Seawolves victories were comeback wins and the team has now won three consecutive matches of the comeback variety ... the Seawolves fell behind Fairfield 1-0 only to win 4-1 and then were down to Temple 3-1 before coming back to win 4-3...Stony Brook did not allow Fairfield to take a single shot after the 28th minute of the match ... junior Berian Gobeil Cruz (Montreal, Quebec) scored twice in the Fairfield win, including the first goal that tied the match ... after he scored his second goal, it gave him three total goals in a span of 84 minutes, going back to the previous match ... sophomore Glenn Whelan (Forest Hills, N.Y.) scored the fourth goal of the match vs. the Stags, his first career tally ... in the comeback win over Temple, junior Antonio Crepi (North Babylon, N.Y.) scored a goal to give the Seawolves a 1-0 lead ... after falling behind 3-1, junior Leonardo Fernandes (Sao Paulo, Brazil) took the team on his back and tied the game with a penalty kick goal and then an incredible corner kick goal ... for Fernandes, it was his second career two-goal night and it completed a five-point week as he also assisted on a Gobeil Cruz goal vs. Fairfield ... junior Kyle Schlesinger (Selden, N.Y.) put in the game-winner with six minutes remaining in regulation ... Stony Brook completed non-conference play with impressive wins over High Point, Fairleigh Dickinson and Temple ... the team opens America East play at New Hampshire Friday.
Vermont (5-3-0) had its three-game win streak snapped with a pair of losses at the Stanford Nike Classic this weekend ... UVM dropped a 3-0 decision to California in the first match and fell 2-1 to the Cardinal ... Senior Yannick Lewis (Toronto, Ontario / Bramalea Secondary) scored his team-leading fourth goal of the year against Stanford ... Lewis entered his senior season with five career goals ... The Catamounts open up conference play on Saturday (Oct. 1) when they host Binghamton at 1 p.m. at Centennial Field.