CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Reigning America East men's soccer champion UMBC has picked up where it left off last season, beginning the new season 2-0-1 and senior goalkeeper Dan Louisignau (Wilmington, Del./Concord/Virginia) has been tabbed the league's Player of the Week for his contribution to the Retrievers' start. Additionally, University at Albany's Pomare Te Anau (Auckland, New Zealand/Mount Albert Grammar School) earned Rookie of the Week honors. The awards for the week ending Sept. 5 were announced Tuesday afternoon.
Louisignau recorded a pair of shutouts to earn MVP honors at the Holiday Inn Express BWI Classic over the weekend. The senior goalkeeper made three saves in a scoreless tie with St. Francis, N.Y. on Thursday in a game that was shortened due to a power outage on UMBC’s campus. Louisignau then made nine stops, an America East season high, in a 1-0 win over Fairleigh Dickinson team that was unbeaten heading into the match. A second-team all-conference performer last year, Louisignau has not allowed a goal in three games this season and has a league-best three shutouts. The Retrievers are unbeaten in their last 12 games dating back to last season.
Te Anau (Auckland, New Zealand/Mount Albert Grammar School) tallied his first points as a collegian last week in helping Albany earn its first win of the season. The freshman midfielder had an assist in a 3-2 overtime loss at Hofstra on Monday before scoring his first career goal in a 4-1 at NJIT Thursday. Te Anau, who has played in all three of the Great Danes’ games so far this season and started two, is second on his team with three points and tied for sixth among league leaders.
In addition to UMBC, Vermont remains unbeaten. The Catamounts knocked off Rhode Island, 1-0, in its lone game last week. Senior Yannick Lewis scored the goal and junior David Ramada made six stops in net to record his second shutout of the year.
Team Notes
Albany (1-2-0) split two games last week with a loss at Hofstra, 3-2 in OT, on Monday, Aug. 29 and a win on the road vs. NJIT, 4-1, on Thursday, Sept. 1 to give head coach Trevor Gorman his first collegiate victory ... Junior forward Quintel Gates (Bay Shore, N.Y./Bay Shore) showed off his goal scoring by finding the net three times last week, one at Hofstra and two at NJIT ... Sophomore defender Thomas Manz (Bronx, N.Y./ Salesian) tallied a goal, which was assisted by freshman midfielder Pomare Te Anau (Auckland, New Zealand/ Mount Albert Grammar School), first collegiate point, in Hofstra in regulation ... Gate’s tallied two goals at NJIT,with one assisted by senior midfielder Anthony DeSalvo (Cicero, N.Y./ Cicero-North Syracuse) ... Senior midfielder David Pinto (Vally Stream, N.Y./ Valley Stream South) found the back of the net for his first goal of the seaon in the 80th minute ... Pomare Te Anau wasted no time grabbing his first goal of his collegiate career in the 84th minute in the third game of the season, which was assisted by redshirt freshman Dan Christiansen (Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks East), also getting his first collegiate point ... The Great Danes play Buffalo, at home, on Sunday, Sept. 11 at 2:30 p.m.
Binghamton (2-1-0) split a pair of games at the Nike/West Virginia Classic this past weekend ... Junior forwards Jake Keegan (Stormville, N.Y./John Jay) and Adam Whitehead (Rochdale, England/Our Lady RC) and sophomore forward Luke Halberg (Norwich, N.Y./Valley Heights Christian) were named to the All-Tournament team ... Keegan, who leads the Bearcats with three goals and eight total points, has a three-game scoring streak, something no other Binghamton player has accomplished since Charles Darkwah (Oct. 9, 2004). Against Houston Baptist on Sept. 4, Keegan turned in his third career three-point performance (one goal, one assist) ... Halberg tied a career high with four points and set his career high with two assists in the game against Houston Baptist ... in the final five minutes of the Houston Baptist match, Binghamton scored twice in a span of 1:18, its quickest two-goal outburst since it netted a pair of goal against Maine within 36 seconds back on Oct. 20, 2007. In addition, the Bearcats four goals in the second half against Houston Baptist represents its highest-scoring 45 minutes since netting five goals in the first half of its game against Philadelphia on Sept. 27, 2003 ... Binghamton is currently averaging 2.67 goals per game.
Boston University (1-2-0) ran into two strong defensive-minded teams and came away with a 1-0 defeats in both contests ... The Terriers had a 9-8 advantage in shot attempts at No. 25 Monmouth, but the Hawks came away with three saves for the victory ... Monmouth scored in the 14th minute off a shot from 30 yards out ... Senior Stephen Knox (Arima, Trinidad/Fatima College (HS)) led all players with four attempts in the contest and came back Saturday with a team-high three shots in the 1-0 loss to St. John’s ... The Red Storm were coming off a 3-0 victory at No. 8 William & Mary ... The Terriers had 3,235 fans attend the fifth annual Terrier Tailgate ... St. John’s scored in the 34th minute and held off three Boston University shots in the final five minutes of the game for the victory ... The contest marked the first of three at home against the Big East conference ... The Terriers will next host Seton Hall on Friday (Sept. 9) at 7 p.m. ... Last year at SHU, Boston University pulled out a 3-1 victory ... Six-time America East Coach of the Year Neil Roberts is one win away from reaching the 300-win milestone.
Hartford (1-1-0) split a pair of matches in its first week of action ... The Hawks took down Siena, 1-0, in the team’s season opener on Thursday evening at Al-Marzook Field ... The win was the first for head coach Tom Poitras, who took over the program in April after an impressive stint at UW-Green Bay ... In addition, Hartford has won eight of its last 11 season openers (8-3-0) and has earned wins in four of its last five season debuts ... Sophomore Ryan Wahab (Windsor, Conn./Windsor) notched the game-winning goal for the Hawks in the 42nd minute on Thursday, scoring his first career goal ... Senior keeper Luke Citriniti (Niskayuna, N.Y./Niskayuna) collected three saves to record his sixth career shutout ... In a “rematch” of last week’s 2011 season opener that was slated for August 27 against Fordham but halted due to Hurricane Irene, Hartford dropped a 1-0 decision to the Rams on Saturday evening in West Hartford ... Despite outshooting Fordham 11-5, including an 8-2 advantage in the second half, Hartford could not rebound from an early Rams’ goal in the sixth minute ... The Hawks hit the road for the first time this season, first traveling to neighboring New Britain for a “cross-town” derby against Central Connecticut on Tuesday (7:00 p.m.) ... Hartford then travels to Wilmington, N.C. for a pair of first time meetings against UNCW (Friday, 7:30 p.m.) and Campbell (Sunday, 1:00 p.m.) at the Courtyard by Marriott Tournament.
UMBC (2-0-1) earned the Holiday Inn Express BWI Classic title with a 1-0 win over Fairleigh Dickinson and a 0-0 draw vs. St. Francis (N.Y.) ... Senior goalkeeper Dan Louisignau (Wilmington, Del./Concord/U. Virginia) was named Most Valuable Player and four other Retrievers earned All-Tournament team honors ... Senior midfielder Andrew Bulls (Millersville, Md./McDonogh), junior defender Liam Paddock (Worchestershire, England), sophomore forward Pete Caringi III (Perry Hall, Md./Calvert Hall) and sophomore defender Daniel Welsh (Fife, Scotland) were named to the squad ... Bulls scored the game-winning goal against FDU, bending in a direct kick in the 13th minute ... The preseason Hermann Award candidate now has 87 career points (29 goals, 29 assists), tying him with former teammate Levi Houapeu for fourth place on UMBC’s all-time scoring list ... His game-winner was the 14th of his career, three behind all-time leader Giuliano Celenza (1999-2000) ... The Retrievers have recorded three shutouts to start a season for the first time since 2003 and just the second time in UMBC’s Division I (1986) history ... UMBC is now 15-0-1 in September home games since the 2007 season... The evening contest vs. St. Francis (N.Y.) abuptly came to a halt in the 72nd minute when a power outage occurred which affected the entire campus... UMBC had not posted awin over FDU since their first meeting in 1994 ... FDU had won six and tied three since that encounter, including three overtime victories ... UMBC’s next three games, which complete a season-opening six-game homestand, are against local rivals Towson (Sept. 7), Navy (Sept. 10) and Maryland (Sept. 13).
New Hampshire (1-2-0) finished its most recent week of action with a record of 0-2 ... The Wildcats opened the week with a 2-1 loss to Iona College (Sept. 1) at Bremner Field ... Despite holding the lead for the majority of the contest, a pair of late goals by Iona College was just enough to hold off UNH and secure the victory ... New Hampshire struck first in the contest when Jeffrey Turner (Blandon, Pa./Fleetwood) threw a ball into the box to Ugochukwu Uche (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer) who headed the ball across the box to David Schlatter (Marlton, N.J./Cherokee), who got a piece of it and headed it into the top of the net at 26:20 of the first half ... Travis Worra (Lancaster, Pa./Hempfield) finished with five saves in the contest ... In their most recent outing, the Wildcats fell to Michigan State (Sept. 4), 3-0, at Lewis Fields ... Worra registered a game-best three saves in the contest ... The Wildcats return to action when they travel to the University of Vermont to play against the University of Massachusetts in the first of two games of the Smith Barney Classic (1:30 p.m.) at Centennial Field.
Stony Brook (0-1-2) went 0-1-1 at the Duquesne Invitational last weekend, losing a nailbiter to Pittsburgh and drawing even with host Duquesne...against Pittsburgh, the Seawolves had seven shots on goal in the first half, but were unable to put the ball past a tough Panthers goalkeeper ... on Sunday against the Dukes, senior Steve Medwinter (St. Albans, N.Y.) scored his first career goal as a Seawolf that helped achieve the tie ... it was also the first goal of the season for the team ... in the combined two games, sophomore Will Casey (Setauket, N.Y.) led the Seawolves with four shots on goal ... junior goalkeeper Stefan Manz (Bronx, N.Y.) made six saves in the two games...Stony Brook will head to the Flash Gordon Invitational in High Point, N.C., this weekend to play host High Point Friday and Radford Sunday.
Vermont (2-0-0) posted a 1-0 victory at Rhode Island in a rescheduled match on Tuesday ... Senior captain Yannick Lewis (Toronto, Ontario/Bramalea Secondary) scored the game-winning goal in the 55th minute with his second goal in as many games ... Junior goalkeeper Dave Ramada (Rutland, Vt./Rutland) made a season-high six saves to earn his second straight shutout ... Lewis entered his senior season with five career goals and already has two through the first two matches of the season ... Ramada and the UVM defense has yet to allow a goal this season ... Vermont was just 1-5-2 on the road last season and is 2-0 this year through the first two matches of 2011 ... The Catamounts won back-to-back true road games for the first time since 1997 and won consecutive games away from Centennial Field for the first time since 2007 ... 1997 was also the last time UVM posted back-to-back shutouts to start the season ... UVM’s match vs. Quinnipiac scheduled for Sept. 5 was rained out ... The Catamounts will open their home schedule hosting the 21st annual Smith Barney Morgan Stanley Windjammer Classic on Sept. 9 and 11.