For the first time ever, Albany and Hartford will decide the America East men’s soccer title as the two teams won semifinal contests Wednesday to secure bids to Sunday’s championship game. The #2 Great Danes scored once in each half to down #3 Vermont, 2-0, while #5 Hartford scored with under five minutes remaining to earn a 2-1 win at #1 Stony Brook.
Albany and Hartford will square off on Sunday, Nov. 13 at 2 p.m. at Albany’s Casey Stadium. The game will air on ESPN3 and AmericaEast.TV. It will be the fourth time since 2009 that the No. 2 and 5 seeds will play for the league title.
In Albany, the Great Danes (11-5-2) scored in the 29th and 66th minutes to down Vermont (13-6-1) and advance to the conference final for the first time. Afonso Pinheiro started the scoring for Albany with his 11th of the year and Carlos Clark rocketed home a shot from 20 yards out to provide insurance in the second half.
On Long Island, Bastian Stech’s header with 4:05 left broke a 1-1 tie and sent Hartford (9-9-3) to the title game for the third time in four years. Stech, who also provided the game winner in the quarterfinals at UNH Saturday, scored 4:58 after Macdara Heanue tapped in the game tying goal for Stony Brook (9-6-3).
Visit Championship Central for links to box scores and highlights from the quarterfinals and semifinals and watch live and live stats links for Sunday’s title game. Stay tuned to AmericaEast.com and follow America East on Twitter for updates.