NCAA II NEW ENGLAND REGIONAL
#4 Franklin Pierce Rolls
Past Le Moyne, 5-0
Clifton hat trick and Phataraprasit’s four points lift top-seeded Ravens into Regional Championship for fourth-straight year

RINDGE, N.H. (November 8, 2007) – Top-seeded Franklin Pierce University, ranked fourth in the National Soccer Coaches’ Association of America (NSCAA)/adidas Division II coaches’ poll, scored four times in the second half to roll to a 5-0 victory over fourth-seeded Le Moyne College in first round action of the NCAA Division II Men’s Soccer New England Regional Championship at Sodexho Field tonight.

            Franklin Pierce (14-2-3) advances to its fourth-straight New England Region Championship match where it will face third-seeded and No. 12-ranked University of Massachusetts Lowell (12-3-4) on Saturday at 7 p.m. The River Hawks advanced past second-seeded and 21^st-ranked Southern Connecticut State University (14-2-5) in a penalty kick shootout (3-2) after the two sides played to a 1-1 double-overtime draw. Le Moyne (14-4-2) was making its fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in program history and second in three seasons.           

Grad student David Clifton (London, England), the Northeast-10 Conference Player of the Year, scored three goals for Franklin Pierce tonight, while freshman back Adit Phataraprasit (Bangkok, Thailand) recorded his first career multi-point outing with a goal and two assists for four points. The Ravens also got a goal from sophomore Henning Comé (Göteborg, Sweden).

            “I’ve gone a couple games without scoring a goal,” said Clifton. “It was nice to get on the score sheet again.”

            Senior All-America goalkeeper James Thorpe (East Longmeadow, Mass./Bridgton Academy) made two saves to preserve his tenth shutout of the season (47^th career) for Franklin Pierce. Junior Steve White (Cortland, N.Y./Cortland) finished with six saves for Le Moyne.           

Franklin Pierce opened the scoring 8:21 into the match, when Phataraprasit got on the end of a corner kick from senior Mike Lima (Ludlow, Mass./Ludlow) and headed it into the left side of the net for his first collegiate goal. The Ravens doubled its lead 4:28 into the second half when Clifton was hauled down on the left side of the penalty area by a Le Moyne defender and was granted a penalty kick. He got White to commit to the left side and calmly slotted the kick into the right side of the net.

            “We always thought that if we could get a second goal it would be hard for them to come back,” said Clifton. “After that the game slowed down a lot and we had a lot of the ball. It was an important goal and changed the game.” 

Comé netted Franklin Pierce’s third goal when he took a through ball from midfield by Phataraprasit, deked White and a Dolphins defender before slotting his shot into an open net in the 61^st minute. Clifton scored Franklin Pierce’s final two goals to round out his hat trick. He first took a long pass over the top of the Le Moyne defense from Phataraprasit, chipped the ball over White and then touched the ball into the open net in the 81^st minute. Clifton finished the scoring in the 86^th minute when he gathered a defensive turnover, deked the goalkeeper, and slotted a low shot into the left side of the open net.

            “Certainly it was a good start to the NCAA Tournament,” said Franklin Pierce Head Coach Marco Koolman of the victory. “I thought tonight we finally started executing games the way we are capable of executing. Overall I think it was a good performance.”

MATCH STATISTICS & PLAY-BY-PLAY