Men's Soccer Earns No. 4 Seed in ECC Championship with Draw at STAC
Box Score SPARKILL, N.Y. (Oct. 27, 2012) – The Mercy College men's soccer team earned the No. 4 seed in the East Coast Conference Championship with a 2-2 draw at St. Thomas Aquinas College on Saturday evening in the Mavericks' regular season finale. Mercy will face the top-seeded No. 2 LIU Post on Friday, Nov. 2 in the semifinals.
Mercy finishes the season with a 10-4-3 overall record, including a 4-4-1 mark in ECC play that earned the team 13 points to edge out Queens College (12 points) for the final playoff berth. Mercy entered the match needing at least a draw, depending on Queens' result, and after the Knights drew with third-seeded NYIT on a 90th-minute Bears goal, the Mavericks knew they only needed to come away with one point to qualify for the Championship. STAC also needed a win to qualify, and after the Queens result the Spartans would have gone into advanced tiebreaking scenarios with the Knights.
Neither team could break through in the first half, with STAC putting the only two shots on target of 14 combined, both of which junior goalkeeper Nick Papas (Castleton, N.Y.) saved within the opening 20 minutes. With both teams at this point expecting to need a win to qualify, the game turned into a serious offensive display resulting in a whopping 25 second-half shots.
STAC broke through first as leading scorer senior midfielder Daniel Davren (Pearl River, N.Y.)headed a long pass from sophomore back Laurie Child (Surrey, England) past Papas in the 66th minute, but who else but senior forward William Koki (Aurora, Colo.) gave the Mavericks the equalizer just minutes later. Koki took the ball along the goal lne and chipped it over senior goalkeeper Andrew Tartara (Bardonia, N.Y.) from a tight angle for his 20th career and 11th goal of the season.
The Spartans turned up their attack to yet another level following Koki's strike, forcing another pair of saves by Papas within the next three minutes. Mercy then went ahead in the 81st minute as senior forward Ernest Afful (Columbus, Ohio) took a pass from Koki and slotted it into the far post for the 2-1 lead and for a moment looked to have punched its ticket to the Championship but barely a minute later Davren equalized for STAC.
While this was occuring, Queens was leading NYIT 1-0 and would have earned the final playoff berth had the scoreline held, but the Bears mustered a 90th-minute equAs alizer to buy the Mavericks time and would last through both overtime periods, putting Mercy in position to advance with a draw.
As the first overtime period got underway, Koki ripped two shots in the opening three minutes, including forcing an athletic save by Tartara. Papas also made an impressive save a few minutes later to keep Mercy in it, and the teams were headed for another overtime. Papas was immediately called into action, making three more clutch saves in the opening five minutes to preserve Mercy's chances of holding on, and the Mavericks offense finally built up enough in the waning minutes to force another two saves of Tartara. The Spartans still nearly pulled it out in the 110 minute as a shot hit the post, but just 13 seconds later Koki's potential game-winner on the other end hit the post as well. With both teams' best chances finally exchausted, Mercy picked up the point it needed to advance and will play as the No. 4 seed in the ECC Championship. Papas finished the day with an invaluable 11 saves, setting a new career high.
Head Coach Chris Smith and the Mavericks will face top-seeded No. 2 LIU Post (16-1, 8-1) on Friday, Nov. 2. Please check back soon for the official start time of the match.
