Men's Soccer Advances on Penalty Kicks to MASCAC Tournament Finals

Westfield, Mass. – Framingham State University rallied from a 3-1 deficit, scoring two goals in the final 18 minutes of regulation, and won the shootout, 4-2, to knock off top seed Westfield State University in the semifinals of the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) men's soccer tournament on Wednesday evening.

No. 4 Framingham (11-8-1) advances to Saturday's championship game at Salem State University. Third seed Salem defeated second seed Bridgewater, 2-1, in Wednesday's other semifinal game. Westfield finishes its fine season with a 14-3-1 record and the MASCAC regular season championship.

Framingham, which lost at home last Saturday to Westfield, 1-0, trailed 3-1 after Westfield's Justin Laliberte (Easthampton, Mass.) scored in the 60^th minute off a corner kick by Jared Spicer (Carver).

But the Rams came storming back, scoring in the 73^rd minute on a perfectly placed header into the top left corner by Andrew Berte (Malden, Mass.) following a well placed cross from Chris Wilkins (Heath, Mass.).

The game-tying goal was a stunning unassisted tally by 2010 MASCAC player of the year Jason Silva (Northbridge, Mass.) with 5:15 remaining in regulation. Silva took a shot near the far right end line that appeared to be heading out of play. But his shot went just inside the post and deflected off the hands of Owl goalie Jeff Pepoli (Ashburnham, Mass.) into the upper right corner.

Westfield outshot Framingham, 20-11, in regulation, with five of the Rams' shot on goal. But the Rams controlled play for much of the two overtimes, outshooting Westfield 4-1. The Owls had a good opportunity to end the game in the opening minutes of the first overtime, but Tim Parsons' (Buzzards Bay, Mass.) shot in front of the net flew high over the crossbar.

In the shootout, Framingham made all four of its attempts with Richie Greene (Haverhill, Mass.) delivering the game-deciding boot. Framingham goalie Greg Hale (Beverly, Mass.) – who finished with eight saves – rejected Kyle Yelin's (Southwick, Mass.) shot on the second attempt while Laliberte lifted a shot over the crossbar on the fourth attempt.

The Owls took a quick 1-0 lead 3:05 into the game on a goal by Josh Severns (Suffield, Mass.), with an assist from Laliberte. Westfield made the score 2-0 on a Yelin penalty kick in the 27^th minute.

Framingham made it 2-1 in the 56^th minute on an unassisted goal from Romulo Carvalho (Milford, Mass.), but the Owls regained their two-goal edge less than four minutes later on Laliberte's goal.