ALBANY, N.Y. – For the first time in program history, Albany is the America East men’s soccer champion. The second-seeded Great Danes converted a penalty kick in the 89th minute to upend fifth-seeded Hartford, 1-0, in the conference’s championship game Sunday afternoon at Albany’s Tom & Mary Casey Stadium.
With its win, Albany (12-5-2) earned the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship. The Great Danes will learn their fate during the NCAA selection show, which will air on NCAA.com Monday at 1 p.m. Vermont, New Hampshire and Stony Brook will also await their NCAA fate as potential at-large selections.
Albany’s Bernardo Mattos earned the championship’s Most Outstanding Player honor, leading a defense that didn’t allow a goal in two tournament games. The Great Danes are the seventh team in America East history to hold opponents scoreless in the tournament.
The Great Danes dominated play, winning the shot advantage 19-2. Hartford goalkeeper Jimmy Slayton, an All-Championship selection, kept the game scoreless by making eight saves, several of them spectacular.
The game appeared to be heading to overtime, but Albany’s Afonso Pinheiro, who earned All-Championship honors, was taken down in the box with just 1:01 remaining in regulation to earn a penalty kick. The second-team All-Conference selection slotted his attempt in the lower right-hand corner of the net to put Albany up 1-0 and the Great Danes held Hartford (9-10-3) off the board in the final minute to seal the outcome.
Joining Mattos, Pinheiro and Slayton on the All-Championship team were Albany’s Carlos Clark and Bryn Steinborsson, Hartford’s Andre Morrison and Bastian Stech, Stony Brook’s Vince Erdei and Lars Togstad, Vermont’s Shane Haley and Bernard Yeboah, Binghamton’s Kevin Flesch and New Hampshire’s Jack Dickson.
Hartford’s Jake Slomski earned the conference’s Elite 17 Award for having the highest GPA among championship game participants. The junior has a 3.94 GPA while majoring in accounting.
Multiple America East teams are in position to earn at-large bids to the NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship as the league has the third-best conference RPI in the country and posted a .679 non-conference winning percentage this season. America East men’s soccer teams have advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament 11 of the last 15 years and UMBC reached the Final Four in 2014.
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