McAllister's two goals propel Seahawks past Framingham and into ECAC Semifinals, 2-1
NEWPORT, R.I. - Junior Sean McAllister (North Arlington, N.J.) scored his second goal of the match with under 12 minutes remaining to lift the Salve Regina University men's soccer team to its first-ever Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) Tournament win, a 2-1 triumph over Framingham State University Wednesday afternoon at Brother Michael Reynolds Field.
The win puts the No. 3 seed Seahawks into the semifinals and sets up a rematch with The Commonwealth Coast Conference (TCCC) rival and No. 2 seed Western New England on Saturday in Springfield, Mass. Earlier this season, the Seahawks defeated the Golden Bears for the first time in school history, 1-0, behind a goal by McAllister. Salve Regina moves to 14-5-2 with today's win, which ties the school-record of 14 wins set by the 1998 CCC Championship squad.
The Rams (11-10-1) trailed 1-0 for all but 2:09 of the match before senior Scott Faria (Fall River, Mass.) tied the game at one at 76:24 of the match. Sophomore Christopher Wilkins (Heath, Mass.) drilled a long shot that was turned aside by SRU sophomore goalkeeper Devin O'Gorman (Canton, Mass.), but Faria pounced on the rebound and scored his team-leading 12th goal of the season.
Less than two minutes later, McAllister - who left the game just minutes earlier with an injury - grabbed a loose ball and netted his 16th goal of the season. The First-Team All-TCCC selection cut towards the middle of the field, stopped at the top left corner of the box, and fired a shot that tucked inside the far right post at 78:01. [View the goal on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/srusportsinfo#p/u/0/x3h8Q0IjAks]
"This is a tremendous result for us," said Seahawks fourth-year head coach Craig O'Rourke II. "Framingham is a very good team and I thought we played very well against them for the entire 90 minutes. We knew going into this match that the wind was going to be a factor, and it most definitely was during the early stages. Once we settled in and started to gain more of the possession, I thought we were quite good at creating several decent scoring opportunities. McAllister was exceptional for us today and he once again showed the quality of finisher that he is. He, along with his classmates Chris Knoth and Ian Jentgen, were the difference for us today."
McAllister staked the Seahawks to a 1-0 lead just 2:09 into the match. He stole the ball from a FSU defender and dribbled down the left side of the field uncontested. McAllister faked senior goalkeeper Greg Halle (Beverly, Mass.) down, then dribbled to his left and booted the ball into the empty net. Salve Regina outshot the Rams 10-2 in the first half and also saw shots from junior Chris Knoth (East Islip, N.Y.) and sophomore Jacob Brigandi (Vernon, Conn.) ring off the post.
Playing with the wind at their backs to start the second half, the Rams picked up their play and forced O'Gorman into action. He first turned aside a shot by Wilkins at 65:25 and later denied junior Richie Greene (Haverhill, Mass.) at 67:26. Minutes after a booming kick by sophomore back Will Menter (Haverhill, Mass.) sailed just high of the net, Faria evened the score and set the stage for McAllister's heroics.
The Seahawks finished the afternoon with a 17-7 edge in shots while the Rams held a 4-1 edge in corner kicks. Halle finished the afternoon with nine saves and finishes his season 11-10-2 while O'Gorman stopped two shots to improve to 12-4-2.