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News Release

Men's Soccer to Face Top-Seeded New Hampshire in America East Semis in Durham, N.H. on Wednesday

11/10/2009

The UMBC men’s soccer team plays (13-5-0) takes on top-seeded New Hampshire (9-6-2) in the semifinals of the 2009 America East Tournament at Lewis Field in Durham, N.H. The opening kick-off takes place at 1:00 p.m.

 

The winner will face the winner of the Hartford at Stony Brook match in the league’s title game on Saturday, Nov. 14.

 

Junior midfielder Levi Houapeu scored in the 72nd minute to break a 1-1 tie and give visiting UMBC a 2-1 win over Binghamton (9-9-1) in the America East quarterfinals.  UMBC fell, 4-0, to the Bearcats just a week earlier at the same venue, but did not allow Binghamton shot attempt in the first 45 minutes. 

Houapeu assisted on freshman midfielder Mark Lubetkin’s first career goal in the first minute of the second half to give UMBC a 1-0 lead, but Binghamton’s Jake Keegan tied the game a minute later. Binghamton defender Liam Carson put his team down a man when he took a red card in the 65th minute. UMBC capitalized minutes later as a Bearcat defender headed a ball into the center of the box, where the league’s Midfielder of the Year drilled the game-winner into the upper corner of the net.

Houapeu took over the top spot in the nation in scoring with his three-point effort. He now has 42 points in 18 games and leads the country with 2.33 points per game. He is tied with Loyola’s Phil Bannister for the lead in assists per game with 12 helpers (0.67 per game) and is tied with teammate Andrew Bulls for third in the nation in goals per game (0.83). Bulls is second in the nation in scoring with 40 points (2.22 per game).

 

UMBC is sixth in the nation in scoring offense, averaging 2.28 goals per game.

 

UMBC has now reached the America East post-season in 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2009. They have reached the semifinal round on all four occasions.

 

Head Coach Pete Caringi, is one win shy of 200 (199-125-37) in his 19 seasons at UMBC.

 

UMBC’s 13 wins is the most since a 15-5-0 mark in 2000 and the fourth-most in 24 years of Division I competition.

 

Houapeu and Bulls’ 15 goals apiece is the most for a Retriever since Derek McElligott scored 15 in 2003 and is the sixth-most in a single season in school history.

 

The Retrievers’ 9-0-0 start was the best in school history and the longest winning streak since 1999, when the NCAA-bound team won 13 straight contests. The 1977 team (15-2-0) started its NCAA Division II tournament-bound season at 7-0-0, while the 1999 Retriever Division I squad opened with six straight wins en route to the nation’s best record that campaign at 19-1-2. 

 

Rankings

The Retrievers were ranked 18th overall nationally by the NSCAA and also debuted at No. 25 in Soccer America and at No. 21 in Soccer Times on Sept. 28.

 

Miscellaneous

For the second consecutive year, UMBC won both games in its adidas Kick-Off Classic, but placed second to Navy. The Mids also defeated Mount St. Mary’s and St. Francis and allowed only one goal, compared to two allowed by the Retrievers.

 

With the 3-0 win at La Salle on Sept. 26, UMBC snapped an 11-game road winless streak, which dated back to the 2007 season.

 

The five goals scored by UMBC vs. Albany on Oct. 24 was the most for a Retriever team in America East play since a 5-2 season ending win over Hartford in 2006 and ties UMBC’s best-ever offensive output in seven league seasons.

 

UMBC has outscored its opponents, 40-22, through 18 games this season… the Retrievers are 8-2-0 at home this season and 17-6-5 vs. America East opponents at home in six-plus seasons of league play.

 

Houapeu scored three times, but hunior midfielder Dustin Dzwonkowski (Baltimore, Md./Archbishop Curley) added the other two UMBC goals against the Great Danes. Dzwonkowski, who had two career goals entering the week of Oct. 19, had tremendous back-to-back games, drawing an assist and scoring the game-winning goal at Boston, and then posting his first career two-goal effort vs. Albany.

 

Freshman netminder Phil Saunders recorded his sixth shutout of the season in the win over Stony Brook.  Saunders had posted four straight shutouts in wins over CAA foes Towson (1-0) and Drexel, Loyola and La Salle. The four consecutive shutouts are UMBC’s first-such streak since a similar string in 2007.

 

Series Notes 

UNH defeated UMBC, 2-0, in Baltimore on Oct. 10 in the first shutout of the year suffered by the Retrievers. The Wildcats lead the overall series, 4-2-1 and the Retrievers are 0-3-0 in Durham.

 

The Wildcats

The Wildcats wrapped up their America East regular season with a 2-1 win over Binghamton University on Oct. 28. The win secured UNH's unbeaten streak to seven games (6-0-1), as they finished the conference schedule undefeated. The win also wrapped up New Hampshire's first regular-season crown since 1994 and its first outright title ever. It is the first time since 1997 that a team completed the conference schedule without a loss and is also UNH's best conference record since also compiling a 6-0-1 mark in 1994.

 

Defender Joe Annese was named America East Defender of the Year and goalkeeper Colin O’Donnell was the Goalkeeper of the Year. Senior Chris Banks, an America East First-Team forward, leads UNH with six goals and 16 points.