Men’s Soccer MASCAC champions, move onto NCAA Tournement
Andrew Higginbottom
Staff Writer
BSU men’s soccer program celebrated their MASCAC tournement championship with their new hardware, earning an automatic bid to the NCAA DIII Tournement.
Bridgewater State University (BSU) overwhelmed each opponent they played in the MASCAC tournament, and took home the MASCAC title after defeating Framingham State University last Sunday, 3-2
The champions are now on to the NCAA Division III tournament, where they will travel to Cambridge, to go head to head with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Engineers.
The road to victory was not as smooth as the team wanted. The Bears had to vacate four well deserved regular season wins, and their #1 seed in the tournament because a player violated a conference rule after taking part in a few games for another amateur team.
Head coach of BSU’s men’s soccer team, Brendan Adams, discussed the situation prior to receiving the title.
“It hurt a bit because we had to go on the road for the league games and losing the regular season conference title because of all the hard work the guys put in,” said Adams. “We could have easily pointed fingers and self destructed, but the guys stayed the course and dug in.”
The Bears conquered that hurdle, and with dedication captured the MASCAC title.
In the championship game, the Bears went to Framingham to play the Rams at their home of Maple Street Field last Sunday afternoon. The Rams put up a great fight, but could not outscore the skilled BSU team.
The tournament MVP Conor Murtagh scored two prominent goals and received an assist in the triumph. Murtagh now has a total of 17 goals and eight assists, gathering 42 points in total tying the Bear’s all time single season scoring record.
The other goal was put in by senior forward Andrew Chenard, making it his sixth of the season, after receiving the assist from Murtagh.
The Rams netted two goals, however junior Colin Jepson and the adept Bear’s defense withheld them from receiving anymore. The 3-2 victory gave Jepson his school-record 17th win of the season.
The all-time winningest coach in BSU soccer history, Brendan Adams, will hope to lead the team to victory in the upcoming NCAA Division III tournament. This will be the team’s fifth appearance in the tournament, after competing in the tournament in 1990, 2004, 2007, and 2013.
Coach Adams expressed his admiration for this year’s team and discussed his expectations for the upcoming tournament.
“I give a lot of credit to our team leaders; Nick Keddie, Jon Pires, Kolin Campbell, Justin Kachadoorian, Conor Murtagh, Sawyer Fleck and Pat Horgan. They really stepped up when the time was needed. Showed a lot, they invested their time, worked on their craft and got the results they were looking for,” said Adams. “We are planning on having our best game of the season on Saturday, hopefully it is good enough to beat MIT.”
The MIT Engineers (16-2-1) will be hosting the Bears (17-3-1) on Saturday, Nov. 14 at Roberts Field in Cambridge.
Andrew Higginbottom is a Staff Writer for The Comment newspaper.
