Men's Soccer | 11/15/2019 1:44:00 PM
Live stats |
Webcast |
Tournament bracket
MEDFORD, Mass. -- Nazareth (14-2-3) makes its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 13 years Saturday as the Golden Flyers play Worcester Polytechnic Institute (12-3-4) in a first-round match at 3:30 p.m. at Tufts University. Tufts (14-2-2), winner of three of the last five Division III national titles, plays SUNY Maritime (12-9-2) in Saturday's first game at 1 p.m. The winners play again Sunday at 3 p.m.
Nazareth in the NCAAs: The Golden Flyers captured the Empire 8 Conference championship last week with shutout wins over Elmira (2-0) and Alfred (1-0) to gain their third NCAA berth. In their last appearance in 2006, the Golden Flyers advanced past Geneseo, Medaille and UC Santa Cruz to reach the national quarterfinals, where they lost to NYU. Nazareth also made it in 2005 and lost to Brockport in the first round.
Nazareth 1, Alfred 0: Nazareth dominated the action, but was unable to score until the 59th minute when senior defender
Dereck France made a left-footed strike from about 30 yards away that found the upper left corner of the goal for the game's lone tally. It was the first career goal for France, who was named tournament MVP. Junior Adrian Padilla gained an assist on the play after delivering a pass from across the field. Senior goalkeeper
Brian Wilkin (2 saves) was named to the all-tournament team along with France and junior defenders
Connor Mann and
Justin Pumputis. It was Wilkin's seventh shutout of the season and 23rd of his career. The win extended Nazareth's school-record unbeaten streak to 13 games (10-0-3).
Nazareth players to watch: Six Nazareth players were recognized as first-team Empire 8 Conference all-stars, including junior midfielder
Jake Adams, who was honored as Player of the Year. Adams leads the team in scoring with 25 points on 11 goals and three assists. He was joined on the first team by sophomore striker
Sam Smyth (6g, 7a), defenders France, Mann and Pumputis as well as the goalkeeper, Wilkin. Sophomore midfielder
Zein Mohamed (4g, 2a) was named honorable mention. Wilkin's stat line includes a 0.62 goals-against average and an .845 save percentage. France, Mann and Pumputis have scored one goal each.
Scouting WPI: Members of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC), WPI had a 10-game unbeaten streak (8-0-2) snapped by Babson, 1-0 in overtime, in the finals of the conference tournament. The Engineers, therefore, were awarded a Pool C (at-large) berth to the 64-team tournament. They are appearing for the fifth time overall and second time in three years. Head coach
Brian Kelley, in his eighth season, was named NEWMAC Coach of the Year and has produced a mark of 82-32-17 for a .691 winning percentage. The roster includes 10 seniors, including leading scorer and NEWMAC Player of the Year
Jackson Conroy (6g, 3a) and Defensive Player of the Year
Ben Rickson.
Mark Calnan (6g, 1a) and
Luke Reiniger (4g, 5a) were also first-team all-conference selections. Junior goalkeeper
Rufus Adams has started all 18 games and has yielded only eight goals for a 0.43 goals-against average, an .889 save percentage and 10 shutouts.
Nazareth Coach Matt Tantalo: Now in his fourth season with the Golden Flyers,
Matt Tantalo took over a team in 2016 that had finished 0-15-1 the season before. Since then the Golden Flyers have gone 6-8-2, 10-6-1 and 12-7-1 before posting this season's 14-2-3 mark. Nazareth competed in the E8 Tournament in 2017 (lost to Sage in overtime) and reached the finals in 2018 (lost to Stevens). Tantalo was head coach at Keuka for 11 seasons (104-62-16) before taking over at Nazareth. He also coached at Elmira for three seasons and was an assistant coach at Syracuse for one season. His career record is 162-116-26 (.576), including 14-2-3 this season. He recently was recognized as Empire 8 Coach of the Year.
Noteworthy: The 14 victories in the most for a Nazareth team since 2006 when the Golden Flyers won the E8 and reached the NCAA Tournament. They finished 15-5-3 that year... Nazareth has outscored the opposition 49-13 in 2019, including 24-3 in the first half... They allowed only three goals against Empire 8 competition, including playoffs... Nazareth also brings a school-record 13-game unbeaten streak (10-0-3) into today's game... Saturday's game will mark the first-ever meeting between Nazareth and WPI in men's soccer. The Golden Flyers also have never faced SUNY Maritime or Tufts.