In AMCC men's soccer semifinal action, #1 Penn State Behrend defeated #4 Franciscan University 5-2, while #2 Medaille College got the 2-1 victory over Mount Aloysius College to advance to the championship game Saturday afternoon.
#1 Penn State Behrend d. #4 Franciscan, 5-2
The Behrend Lions got on the board first in Wednesday's semifinal. Aaron Harris slipped a through ball to Dakota Lange whose cross beat the Franciscan goalkeeper and was stabbed into the back of the net by Logan Brinsky. In the 26th minute, a Franciscan foul in the box resulted in a penalty kick for PSB. Senior Ryan Maurer stepped up and converted the PK to give the Behrend Lions a 2-0 lead, which they carried into the locker rooms at halftime. In the second half, Brinsky scored on a pass from Nick McKee to push Behrend's advantage 3-0. A minute later, the Barons got on the scoreboard when Sebastian Koehler scored his 10th goal of the year. Penn State Behrend would add goals in the 69th and 86th minutes. Maurer added a second goal and Lange tallied a late score. Franciscan would add header with three seconds remaining in the game. Behrend senior goalie Chris Ralph made five saves in the game.
#2 Medaille d. #3 Mount Aloysius, 2-1
The Mounties got on the board first and fast, as Mount Aloysius' Pau Aran opened the scoring in the 7th minute with a far-side snipe off a rebound chance from the Maverick defense. The road team seized momentum with that 1-0 lead. Things would get knotted up in the 35th minute when Medaille's Anthony Marafioti buried a PK into the lower-left corner of the Mountie net. The second half began as almost a mirror image of the first; this time in the 7th minute of the half (52nd overall), it was the Mavericks grabbing their first lead of the afternoon (2-1). Marafioti and Lachlan Beever connected on a goal, with Marafioti feeding Beever in front of the goal and Beever bringing home the game-winner with a cruicial header.
Behrend and Medaille will face off for the AMCC men's soccer championship on Saturday, November 3 at 2:30 p.m. on the Penn State Behrend campus.