Senior goalkeeper Ryan Corry came off the bench to make two saves in the penalty kick round as second-seeded Vermont advanced past Hartford to the title game of the 2002 America East Men’s Soccer Championship at Centennial Field in front of 1,122 fans.
Before UVM bested the third-seeded Hawks, 4-2 in penalty kicks, the teams battled to a 2-2 draw that included two overtimes.
The Catamounts will play top-seeded Northeastern in the championship next Sunday, November 17th at 1 p.m. at N.U.’s Parsons Field in Brookline, MA. The winner earns an automatic bid to the 2002 NCAA College Cup.
Corry, was given the nod by Vermont coach Roy Patton, came in for Cats’ starting keeper David Sullivan (five saves in 110 minutes) in the penalty kick round. Corry delivered, making diving saves on bids by the Hawks’ Peter Sjolin and Guy Primor.
Vermont, behind Tim Parisi, Neal Beasley, Keli Helgason and Mike Samer, was perfect on all four of their attempts. Samer, whose second-half goal forced the extra time, scored the clinching fourth PK goal.
“We had so many chances to win in a conventional manner, it was fortunate to come through in the bonus round,” commented Patton. “Our guys really worked hard today and deserve to play another game.”
Vermont opened the scoring in the 13th minute as Ethan Hutchins headed in cross by Adam Wallace.
In the 18th minute, Alon Lubezky, on a feed from Maurizio Silvestri, scored his conference-leading 14th goal on a goalmouth header.
After the break, Vermont took control of the game, out-shooting Hartford, 15-5 in the second half. The Catamounts got the equalizer in the 59th minute as Samer, after nice touch passes from Helgason and Wallace, beat Ryan Carr from four yards.
In the overtimes, both sides had great chances to end it as Carr robbed Wallace and Tony Anderson on point blank shots while Sullivan made a nifty stop on Lubezky from 18 yards. Carr was the tough luck loser making eight stops as Hartford ends their season at 7-10-2.
With the decision, Vermont (10-6-2) remains perfect this season at Centennial Field (6-0-2) and they will look to avenge a 4-3 overtime loss at Northeastern back on October 19th.
The Catamounts advance to the title game for the fifth time. They previously won the championship in 1989, 1990 and two years ago in 2000.
