The Suffolk University men’s soccer season finished up its season this past week. The men played their final two games of the season againt GNAC opponents with the hope to come out with a victory in both and finish high enough in the standings to make the post-season.
In the GNAC conference there are 10 teams; out of those 10 teams, eight get a birth into the post-season and before last week, Suffolk was on the cusp of clincing one of those eight spots.
Suffolk would have to face the teams of Emmanuel and Rivier to settle who would hold onto a top eight spot. Both Emmanuel and Rivier are very beatable teams, sitting in the lower half of the GNAC conference.
First, Suffolk would take on Emmanuel College. Emmnuel would be the better of the Ram’s last two opponents, who will finish with an overall record of 9-10, going 5-4 in the conference, capturing the sixth spot in the GNAC.
This game was not the way Suffolk wanted to play its final games of the year. Emmanuel’s James Carroll was all the offense that they would need as he scored two goals in the first half 14-minutes apart from one another. The 2-0 lead would evolve to 3-0 when Emmanuel once again scored in the 81st minute of the game. Five minutes after Emmanuel made it 3-0, Suffolk leading-scorer Andres Torres tallied his 10th goal of the season to cut the defecit to two.
Almost immediately after Cohen’s goal, Emmanuel answered right back with Allan Parrelli scoring a mere 11 seconds later. 4-1 would be the final score.
A crushing loss did not mean the end of the season with one more match to go against a less than stellar Rivier team. Rivier will end the season with a 3-11-1 record, going 2-6-1 in the conference.
This game is played for the final spot in the GNAC tournament, with the other team packing it up until next year.
It didn’t take long for someone to score in this one. At 12:33, in the first half, Rivier’s Danny Connelly scored an unassisted goal to put Suffolk against the ropes early. Suffolk could never get off those ropes. The Rams pounded and peppered the goalie for Rivier but he would not budge. Suffolk took 30 shots overall and landed 10 on net, but Rivier’s Gary Archambault was solid in net.
This proved to be the most dissapointing game of the season for Suffolk as they missed the oppertunity to make the playoffs by one game. They knew they were the better team this year and it just did not translate on the field.
Suffolk finished with an overall record of 4-13, with a conference record of 2-7 giving them a ninth place finish.
Players such as Andres Cohen, Nicholas Chamma, Djbril Niang, and Jeff Williams had solid seasons for the Rams this year. Cohen finished third overall in the conference in goals scored with 10. Nicholas Chamma also finished second in the GNAC in overall saves wiith 113.
