Knights Men’s Soccer Wins NEC Title, Reaches Sweet 16

The Knights men’s soccer team defeated the Saint Francis University (Pa.) Red Flash to win the Northeast Conference (NEC) championship. Seth Roland, head men’s soccer coach, athletics, commended his team. “All year long, our guys have felt that they had some unfinished business to take care of from last year’s NEC championship game, which inspired us for the past 365 days. And bringing home the 2012 NEC championship makes it all worthwhile. I could not be more proud of the guys, and it is great to see their commitment, work ethic and mentality rewarded.”

The victorious men’s soccer team. They are, Assistant Coach Lawrence Dixon (lying down); kneeling, from left, David Cornwell, Antony Moore, Jeffrey Barrenechea and Godfred Baafi; third row, from left, Miguel Escobar, Kean Lewis, Manny Calixto, Anders Vest-Hansen, Kelvin Preciado and Tatenda Chimhanda; and fourth row, from left, Head Coach Seth Roland, Alex Djekic, Simon Doherty, Badir Sherman, Jack McVey, Yusuf Hamza (behind Preciado), Jacob Lissek (with finger pointing), Zac Aikens, Nico Wright, Assistant Coach Alex Passucci, Assistant Coach Orce Kozeski; and back row, from left, Nicholas Walker (holding plaque), Karlis Putans (behind Walker), Tyler Lundgren (behind Sherman), Jason Wells (holding trophy) and Sam Durkot (behind McVey). Not in the photo are Jan Aubert, Alfredo Malaret and Peter Scimemi.

The NEC victory earned the Knights a spot in the NCAA tournament. After back-to-back victories against St. John’s University (1-0) and Saint Louis University (2-1) to make the “sweet 16,” the Knights’ postseason run ended after losing in overtime to the University of North Carolina, the defending national champion. “What a great run we had this postseason,” Roland said. “This group has restored our program back to greatness and national prominence. We went toe-to-toe with the defending national champions and put ourselves in a position to win the game a handful of times, but were just a little unlucky.”