OCTOBER 29, 2010
KING'S MEN'S SOCCER TEAM IN MUST-WIN SITUATION AS MONARCHS CHALLENGE FOR FREEDOM CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT BERTH
WILKES-BARRE — When the King's College men's soccer team travels to Center Valley on Saturday to face DeSales University at 2:00 p.m. in the regular-season finale for both teams, the Monarchs will be fighting for their playoff lives.
Fans unable to attend can follow the action on LiveStats at the following link:
http://www.sidearmstats.com/desales/msoc/index.htm
With the top four teams earning qualifying berths into the 2010 Freedom Conference Tournament, King's currently sits in a tie for fourth place. But for all intents and purposes, the Monarchs are really in fifth place when factoring in the Middle Atlantic Conferences tiebreaking criteria.
Although Eastern University (5-1 Freedom) and DeSales University (4-0-2) are still battling for the top seed, neither squad can fall below a second seed in the tournament. Three teams are battling for the final two playoff spots as King's, Misericordia, and FDU-Florham are the only squads remaining who can secure either a third or fourth seed. Each team will play its final game of the regular-season on Saturday as King's travels to play DeSales, Misericordia will go on the road to face Wilkes, while FDU plays host to Eastern.
Entering the weekend, FDU stands in third place with a 3-2-1 conference record. King's and Misericordia are both 3-3 in league contests, but the Cougars hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over King's with their 2-1 victory over the Monarchs on October 12. Mathematically, King's is still in contention, but a few scenarios can change the playoff scope.
First, King's must defeat DeSales.A tie with DeSales would leave King's with a remote mathematical possibility but a number of other factors could result in a three-way tie and leaving King's at the mercy of a complicated conference tiebreaking procedure. A Monarch loss would eliminate King's from the playoff picture regardless of any other conference result. With a King's victory, the Monarchs will also need FDU-Florham to lose at home to Eastern. If that result were to occur, King's would stand at 4-3 in-conference while FDU would slip to 3-3-1. If King's defeats DeSales and FDU loses to Eastern, the Monarchs would receive a tournament berth no matter how Misericordia did in its finale on the road at Wilkes.
If King's wins and both FDU-Florham and Misericordia each lose, the Monarchs would be the third seed and FDU would be fourth as Misericordia would finish at 3-4 in league games. If King's and Misericordia each win to finish at 4-3 and FDU loses, the Cougars will get the third seed over the Monarchs based on their head-to-head win.
For King's, winning at DeSales will be a major challenge. The Monarchs last victory in Center Valley came during a 4-0 victory during the 1999 campaign. Since then, King's has gone 0-5 at DeSales, including a 2-0 loss in the 2007 Freedom Conference championship game. Over the last 10 meetings between the teams, DeSales holds a 9-0-1 advantage with the last King's victory coming by a 2-0 decision at home in 2001. The teams played to a 3-3 tie in 2008.
The Monarchs, who are 10-8 overall, will be led by junior Joey Bender who tops the squad with 24 points on eight goals and eight assists. Sophomore Alex Martino follows with 15 points on seven goals and one assist. Sophomore Tim Meyer adds 13 points on five goals and three assists while senior Dan Horn and freshman Max Allegro chip in with 11 points each on five goals and one assist respectively. In goal, sophomore Andrew O'Shura has been solid with a 1.17 goals against average in nine starts.
DeSales, which sports a 12-4-2 overall record, is paced by senior Derek Long with 32 points on 15 goals and two assists. Jonathan Balfour follows with 21 points on seven goals and seven assists. In goal, Adam Franczak owns a stingy 0.60 goals against average in 17 starts.
