With Furman's game-winner, Warriors come from behind for 3-2 win
Below: Matt Furman
P LYMOUTH, N.H. -- Sophomore Matt Furman
(Montville) scored his second game-ending
goal in sudden death overtime to lift men's soccer to a 3-2 double-overtime Little East Conference win over Plymouth State University Saturday afternoon at Panther Field.
The victory gives Eastern a share of the conference regular-season title with Keene State College, both teams at 6-1-0. Having already secured the No. 2 seed in the LEC playoffs prior to Saturday's match, Eastern hosts No. 3 seed Rhode Island College Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Mansfield Outdoor Complex. Top seed Keene State hosts No. 4 Massachusetts Dartmouth Wednesday in the other LEC semifinal. The final will be staged at the site of the highest remaining seed Saturday.
The six regular-season conference wins are the most ever by Eastern, which is 15-3-4 in conference regular-season play under third-year head coach Greg DeVito.
With Plymouth needing only a tie to gain the fourth seed in the tournament, Eastern scored the game-winner 13 minutes into sudden-death overtime when Furman knocked in a crossing pass from the corner by freshman Cory Tobler (Portland).The overtime win is the second for Eastern over Plymouth at Plymouth in its last two tries. On September 15, Furman had scored with 23 seconds left in overtime to give Eastern a 3-2 win over visiting Tufts University. The game-winning goal is the fourth for Furman, who has seven goals.
Senior Maxim Fantl (West Hartford) scored his team-leading 16th goal of the year midway through the first half to give the Warriors a 1-0 lead, but Plymouth answered with the tying and go-ahead goals 80 seconds apart early in the second half. That lead stood up until Tobler scored an unassisted goal with 16 minutes left to force overtime.
Fantl equaled his season-best total of 16 goals which he had first scored last year on the way to LEC Offensive Player-of-the-Year honors and first-team all-region accolades. Fantl, who has 17 points during the six-game winning streak, has collected 48 goals and 116 points in 80 career matches.
Fantl entered the match sharing the conference goal-scoring lead with Plymouth senior Semir Mehmedovic. Mehmedovic gave Plymouth its 2-1 lead early in the second half with his 16th goal
Sophomore keeper Carl Appel (New Windsor, NJ) made seven saves to earn his 29th career win in two seasons. The Warriors scored the tying and winning goals against Plymouth reserve keeper Dan Salzer after freshman starter Bjorn Ohlsson left the game in the 68th minute after colliding with Furman. Furman was issued a yellow card warning on the play, only Eastern's sixth of the year.
The win is Eastern's sixth straight and ninth in a row against New England competition while the home loss is the third straight for Plymouth, which awaits a possible bid to the ECAC New England Tournament.
The regular-season title is Eastern's second in three seasons under DeVito, who led the Warriors to the outright regular-season crown in 2007.
Eastern and Rhode Island College have met in the conference playoffs in each of the last two years, the teams trading semifinal wins. The Warriors claimed a 1-0 win at home in 2007 en route to its first LEC post-season championship. Last year, Rhode Island eliminated Eastern, 2-1, at Providence on the way to a championship-game win over Plymouth.
Eastern Conn. 3, Plymouth State U. 2, 2 ot
Eastern Conn. (14-4-1, 6-1-0 little east) 1 1 (0) (1) -- 3
Plymouth State (9-8-0, 3-4-0 little east) 0 2 (0) (0) --2
Scoring: E-Maxim Fantl (Cory Tobler) 22:06; P-Dre Cabral (Parker Spear) 50:13; P-Semir Mehmedovic 51:33; Tobler 73:48; E-Matt Furman (Tobler) 103:21.
Shots: E-17, P-15; Saves: E-Carl Appel 7, P-Bjorn Ohlsson 3 (1 goal allowed, 67:30 min.), Dan Salzer 0 (2, 35:51).
Corner kicks: E-8, P-2.
