ECSU Sweeps LEC Titles

Men, Women Move on to NCAA Division III Tournaments

Nov. 11, 2009

For only the third time in the 11-year history of the Little East Conference soccer championship, the men’s and women’s teams from the same institution have hoisted playoff championship flags in the same season.

One Eastern Connecticut State soccer team performed a road upset, while the other fended off the spirited bid of an underdog visiting squad, as both teams qualified for this coming week’s NCAA Division III tournament with 1-0 triumphs in the championship games of their respective 2009 tournaments.

The women's team captured its third flag in the last seven seasons by upending top-seeded Keene State College, while the men corralled their second LEC playoff championship by withstanding the charge of fourth-seeded University of Massachusetts Boston.

Eastern becomes the first institution to win both in the same year without either the men's or women's team being the No. 1 seed.

Men withstand UMass’s upset bid

Utilizing only three substitutes - two of them backup goalkeepers - due to sickness and injury, the ECSU men persevered to win its second title in three years. In 2007, current assistant coach Jay Barney stopped two penalty kicks when Eastern posted its first-ever title with the shootout win over Keene State College. Saturday's shutout gives the Eastern defense 200 scoreless minutes in two championship matches.

Saturday, senior co-captain Nicholas Boretti (Marshfield, Mass.) scored his eighth goal of the season midway through the second on assists from freshmen Cory Tobler (Portland, Conn.) and Jon DeCasanova (Glastonbury, Conn.). Sophomore keeper Carl Appel made two standout saves in the second half for the team’s second LEC title in as many championship game appearances.

DeCasanova sent a pass to the left flank to Tobler, who sent a low shot through the box to the far post, where Boretti found space and one-timed it home.

Boretti was named the tournament Most Outstanding Player after scoring game-winning goals in each of the team's shutout wins in the playoffs. He scored the first goal Wednesday as the second-seeded Warriors blanked No. 3 seed Rhode Island College, 2-0, at the Mansfield Outdoor Complex

The win is Eastern’s (16-4-1) eighth straight this year and tenth in a row against New England competition and ties the 40-year-old program record for wins in a season. The Warriors are ranked fifth in New England.

With a recent spate of injuries and illness, third-year head coach Greg DeVito had only three substitutes at his disposal, two of whom were backup keepers Tyler Edwardsen (Ledyard, Conn.), and Jordan Munsell (Waterford, Conn.), who combined for 51 minutes. The dearth of available reserves necessitated that seven starting field players logged all 90 minutes.

Among those unable to perform were forward/midfielders Sean Capezzone (Colchester, Conn.) and Matt Furman (Montville, Conn.). Capezzone re-injured his left knee against Rhode Island College Wednesday, while Furman, the team’s second-leading scorer, woke up with the flu Saturday morning. Eight freshmen and sophomores were among the team’s starting unit against the Corsairs.

The recent injuries forced DeVito to move sophomore Matt Esposito (East Haven, Conn.) from midfield to back and insert sophomore Matt Kalmin (Burlington, Conn.) at midfield, where he was making his first start of the year.

Two of Appel’s saves came early in the second half when he was forced to stretch full out at the left post to stop shots by Ebenezer Vicente and Kyle Lopes. The Corsairs also had three ideal chances in the final 28 minutes. Alves put one over the crossbar with 28 minutes left, then had a free kick in the box sail wide right. A shot by Jason Couto from the top of the box shot also landed on top of the net with 13 minutes left.

Women’s seniors win first LEC playoff title

Senior Sarah Swann (Oxford, Conn.) scored her conference-leading 14th goal of the year on an assist from sophomore Sam Konopka (Hebron, Conn.) and senior Kim Church (Farmington, Conn.) made six saves as second-seeded women’s soccer won its third Little East Conference championship in seven years with a 1-0 win over top-seeded Keene State College Saturday.

With its fifth shutout victory in its last seven outings, Eastern (12-5-3) qualifies for its fourth NCAA tournament (third under tenth-year head coach Chris D'Ambrosio), which gets underway Thursday. Keene (14-6-2) had a three-game winning streak snapped and lost in the tourney final for the seventh time in nine appearances, falling to the Warriors for the third time in four tries in the clinching game. Eastern is 2-1 against Keene in finals played at Keene.

The title is the first for seniors Swann, Chuch, Taylor MacDonald (Oak Bluffs, Mass.), Christine Lemieux (South Windsor, Conn.), who had lost in the title game to Western Connecticut the previous two years after being eliminated by Keene in the team’s first conference tournament game in 2006.

Church, selected the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, made several game-saving saves among her six, with two coming in the first half and another in the second. In the first half, Church made hand saves on two consecutive Keene bids. First, she deflected a shot by Keene scoring leader Katie Bradford off the crossbar, then re-gained her feet to knock away the rebound.

Konopka, who played 67 minutes off the bench, set up Swann's game-winning goal in the 69th minute with a free kick for her second assist of the season - both coming in the last three matches.

The Warriors pulled off their second championship game win on Keene’s field in three tries despite getting little or no contribution from three injured players: sophomore back Laura Violette (Wallingford, Conn.), sophomore forward Lauren Greeney (Bethel, Conn.) and freshman forward/midfielder Kelly Wallace (South Windsor, Conn.), the conference assist leader. Wallace was pulled from the lineup after only 23 minutes, while Greeney was limited to 33 minutes off the bench. Violette missed her sixth game of the season after re-injuring her ankle recently.

Since losing 2-1 in overtime at Keene State Sept. 26, Eastern is 8-2-2 in its last 12 matches. The Owls had gone unbeaten (6-0-1) in the conference regular-season in winning third first LEC regular-season title since 2004