By Matt Fontaine
Sports Information staff
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For the third season in a row, men's soccer (14-4-1, 6-1-0 little east) will take on Rhode Island College (9-7-2, 5-2-0 little east) in a Little East Conference semi-final matchup Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Mansfield Outdoor Complex.
Above: Senior co-captains Maxim Fantl, Nicholas Boretti and head coach Greg DeVito.
This season, Eastern comes into the matchup with Rhode Island as regular season co-champion with Keene State. Eastern was given the No. 2, however, due to the loss at home to Keene State earlier in the season. Rhode Island took the No. 3 seed for having the third-best record. Eastern is no stranger to playing Rhode Island in the playoffs.
Last season, Rhode Island beat Eastern by a score of 2-1 in Providence to make it to the LEC championship game where they beat Plymouth State to capture the conference title. In 2007, Eastern hosted Rhode Island and defeated the Anchormen 1-0 which lead to Eastern capturing their first conference hampionship by downing Keene State on penalty kicks at Thomas Nevers Field.
Led by seniors Maxim Fantl (West Harford), Nicholas Boretti (Marshfield, MA), Chris Bourdeau (Thompson), and Sean Capezzone (Colchester), Eastern comes into this playoff match on a hot streak. Eastern has won its last six games by outscoring its opponents by a margin of 18-5.
Ranked 11th in New England, Eastern beat Rhode Island on October 18 by a score of 3-1. In that game, Fantl recorded his 100th career point on a goal assisted by Boretti and Matt Esposito (East Haven). Boretti totaled a career high five points by picking up two goals and one assist. Also in the game, Bourdeau tallied an assist by winning a ball in the middle of the field and sent a pass up to Esposito who found Boretti in front of the net unguarded to pick up the goal. Eastern sophomore Carl Appel (West Windsor, NJ) gained his 23rd career win that day, stopping two Rhode Island shots.
Eastern tops the conference in most offensive categories, but is followed by Rhode Island in most of them The Warriors are first in points (134), shots (311), assists (42), and tied for first in goals (46). Rhode Island is second in all of those categories, except in goals, in which they are tied with Eastern. Individually for Eastern, Fantl leads the LEC in points (38), tied for first in the goals (16), tied for second in assists (6), and second in shots (85). Eastern's Aaron Smiles (Bedford, MA) leads the LEC in assists (8) and Esposito has six. First-year sophomore Matt Furman (Montville) has a total of 19 points (7 goals, 5 assists) and Boretti has 16 points (6 goals, 4 assists), which is good for sixth and eighth, respectively, in the LEC.
Defensively, Eastern has only given up 20 goals which put them second in the conference. Appel who has recorded three shutouts this season, leads the LEC in goals against average (1.06) and his save percentage ranks third (.789). With the loss of three starting defensemen from last year - including All-America Kyle Bedini -- Eastern's young defensive collection of sophomore Smiles and freshmen Dan Fish (Marlborough), Bradley Fletcher (Middletown), and Jon DeCasanova (Glastonbury) have all played exceptional in having to replace the starters from last year's squad that was seeded first in the ECAC New England Division III Tournament. The defense will have to keep an eye of Rhode Island's Bruno Costa, who has 32 total points with 15 goals and 2 assists.
Also playing a big role for Eastern - most notably in the last several weeks -- is freshman Cory Tobler (Portland), who has tallied four goals to go along with four assists. He was named last week's LEC Rookie-of-the-Week, while Furman was selected last week's LEC Offensive Player-of-the-Week for the game-winning goal Saturday at Plymouth State.
Coach Greg DeVito in his third season at Eastern, and has qualified for the LEC playoffs in each campaign. The 2007 LEC Coach of the Year, DeVito has an overall record of 40-15-7 and a LEC regular-season record of 15-3-3.
Also on Wednesday, top-seeded Keene State (6-1-0 LEC) hosts No. 4 University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in the other semi-final matchup at Keene, NH at 6 p.m. The Corsairs (3-3-1 LEC) were the only conference team to defeat Keene this year, posting a 1-0 win.
The LEC championship game will be played Saturday at the site of the highest remaining seed.
The Eastern-Rhode Island College game can be heard live on WECS beginning at 5:55 p.m. The link can be found on the Eastern men's soccer home page.
