Men's Soccer Playoffs

Men's Soccer: Ravens roll over owls 2-1 in first playoff game By Tony Catinella

Frantz Francois changed his pair of cleats, came into the a tied overtime playoff game, and scored a late game winning goal to lift the Ravens past their rival Southern Connecticut Owls 2-1 on November 2.

The clocks may have been moved back an hour that day, but the game time was not altered. Time was running out in overtime, and Ravens coach Marco Koolman had to make a move. He threw his fresh and rejuvenated midfielder into the game with less than five minutes left and he got perfect results. Francois came into the game and flew past Southern Connecticut defenders to score the game winning goal and lifted the Ravens into the second round of the Northeast 10 Conference Tournament.

"It's amazing, I'm speechless," said Francois after the game. "Scoring a goal in overtime and sending your team to the second round is an amazing thing to do."

Before Francois entered the game in overtime, he changed his cleats for good luck. His cleats had his mother's number on the bottom of them. The cleats may have been the difference as Francois now has 5 goals on the season, including 3 in last four games.

Before he subbed is senior midfielder into the game, Coach Koolman told Francois that he was going to make a difference. Francois knew his team relied on him, as a senior to step up and score. "I want to make it the year I have to go all out; I have to give it everything I got."

The Ravens dominated Southern Connecticut in the middle of the field. They held procession of the ball for the majority of the game and out shot the Owls 17-4.

But Franklin Pierce did not always lead the game, they fell behind 1-0 when Southern Connecticut Serbian senior Djordje Jankovic scored in the 55th minute. The Owls could not hold their lead for more than three minutes, as Ravens freshman forward Viktor Goncalves tied up the game in the 58th minutes, blasting the ball past Southern Connecticut freshman goalie Andrew Esposito.

"It was an intense moment," said Goncalves. "We were losing and we needed a goal. I scored… it was lovely!"

Esposito made 9 saves in the game, but it was not enough, as the Ravens offense attacked the Owls all night as 6 different Ravens had at least one shot on net.

The game was played in less than 30 degree weather. After the game Gonclaves said that the weather was so cold that he could not even feel his fingers throughout the game.

The Ravens won the game, despite missing their senior captain Cole Larned who was suspended because of a red card he received in a previous game.

With the 2-1 win, the third seeded Ravens move on to the semi-finals of the Northeast-10 Conference playoffs to play Southern Connecticut.

Men's Soccer win in PK's By Tony Catinella

90 minutes passed: no one had scored. 10 minutes of overtime added suspense to the game but no team had yet to score. In a second overtime of 10 minutes, still neither team had scored as the Franklin Pierce Ravens Men's Soccer team and their opponents Southern Connecticut University had played a scoreless tie and would have to settle for a shootout.

In regulation freshman Goalie Vinny Papageorgiou made five saves to record his seventh shutout of the season while Southern Connecticut goalie Sean Lambert also recorded the shutout.

In the penalty shootout Ravens captain Cole Larned shot first and scored. SNH Richard Kentish also scored.

Ravens freshman Viktor Goncalvestook the next shot and scored, but the score was still ties after SNH Paulson Edum scored off Papageorgiou.

It looked like trouble for the Ravens when senior Frantz Francois's shot was saved, but Papageorgiou saved the next SNH shot he saw from Kevin Woods.

Ravens defensive sophomore captain shot fourth and scored as it was matched by SNH's Mike Adam.

The score was tied 3-3 and each team had one more shooter. Ravens captain Bisharra Ettienne shot last and scored the game winning penalty shot as Papageorgiou saved SNH's final shot by Ransford Shand and the Ravens were victorious.

With the win the Ravens will move onto the NE 10 Conference Tournament Finals.

Soccer season ends in devastation By Tony Catinella

The Northeast-10 Conference has informed Franklin Pierce University that it must forfeit its advancement from the semifinal round of the NE-10 men's soccer tournament for inadvertent use of an ineligible player in Wednesday's match at Southern New Hampshire University. The ineligible player was senior captain Cole Larned. Larned was suspended for the first round of the Northeast-10 Tournament for a red card he received in the final game of the regular season. According to Larned, the team was never notified that he was suspended for two games. "It's tough, but there's nothing we can do about it."