Franklin Pierce Defeats American International, 4-1
Comé and Clifton each collect five points
for Ravens – unbeaten in five-straight

RINDGE, N.H. (September 15, 2007) – Franklin Pierce University, ranked fifth in this week’s National Soccer Coaches’ Association of America (NSCAA)/adidas New England Regional poll, jumped out to a 3-0 lead after 23-minutes en route to a 4-1 victory over American International College in a Northeast-10 Conference men’s soccer match on Franklin Pierce Men’s Soccer Alumni Day at Sodexho Field tonight.

Grad student David Clifton (London, England) and sophomore Henning Comé (Gothenburg, Sweden) each collected five points for Franklin Pierce with two goals and an assist each. Grad student Adam Gardiner (Herts, England), and sophomore Jacob Horwitz (Evanston, Ill./St. Paul’s Academy) each collected their first points as Ravens with an assist apiece.

Senior All-America goalkeeper James Thorpe (East Longmeadow, Mass./Bridgton Academy) finished with two saves for Franklin Pierce, while junior Anthony Tranghese (East Longmeadow, Mass./East Longmeadow) stopped three shots for American International.

Franklin Pierce, unbeaten over its last five (4-0-1) and winners of three-straight, opened the scoring just 5:04 into the match when Comé perfectly timed a long pass from the back by Gardiner and took two touches while breaking in one-on-one with Tranghese before firing a low shot into the lower right corner of the net.

Clifton doubled the Ravens advantage in the 21^st minute when he was sent in one-on-one with Tranghese by a nice through ball from Larned down the left side. Clifton took three or four touches before slotting a low shot into the right side of the net at 20:30. Comé completed his first half double less than three minutes later when he one timed a cross from the left side by Horwitz that was flicked by Clifton at 23:09.

AIC pulled a goal back in the 37^th minute when senior Bernard Kessie (Worcester, Mass./Burncoat) one-timed a cross from the left side by classmate Chris Charles (Brooklyn, N.Y./Herkimer CC) at the far post past a sprawling Thorpe.

Franklin Pierce rounded out the scoring in the closing seconds as Comé sent Clifton in one-on-one with Tranghese on a counter-attack break. Clifton fired a low shot into the right side of the net past the charging keeper to complete his third career multi-goal outing with just 18-seconds on the clock.   

Franklin Pierce (4-1-1, 3-0-0 NE-10) is back in action on Wednesday when it hosts Bentley College, to cap a twi-night soccer doubleheader with the Raven women’s team, at 7 p.m. American International (1-3-3, 1-2-1 NE-10) visits Merrimack College on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

MATCH STATISTICS & PLAY-BY-PLAY