BOX SCORE
GAME HIGHLIGHTS (Courtesy of Boston Univ. Sports Information)
PHOTO GALLERY
Boston, Mass. – The Hawks will make their first America East Championship game appearance in 12 years as Atobra Ampadu provided the only offense in a 1-0 triumph over top seeded Boston University (9-9-0) at Nickerson Field in the semifinals. The Hawks (8-8-4) advance to face the second seeded Stony Brook Seawolves on Sunday with a 6:00 p.m. start scheduled at La Valle Stadium.
“Obviously it's a great day for University of Hartford soccer,” said head coach Tom Poitras. “It's a big step for the program to get to the finals. We went into Baltimore and played against the defending champs and ended up on the positive side of that. Then onto Boston and the regular season champs and our guys worked really hard, got a great goal and defended really well after that.”
Just one shot on goal was recorded in the first 45 minutes despite six corner kicks between the two squads. The lone attempt, which was in favor of the visiting Hawks, came in the fifth minute where Anthony Santaga took advantage of the first corner kick for his team. David Bernhardsson began the play from the corner where his cross found Santaga's head. Terriers' keeper Nick Thomson, a freshman who secured a spot on the America East All-Rookie team following the regular season, leapt to his left and tipped the ball out of trouble using the tips of his gloves.
Another All-Rookie selection would provide the fireworks in the second half, this time the Hawks Ampadu who sent a hard shot through traffic which found the back of the net for the lone goal in the game. Classmate Damion Lowe initiated the offense with a pass downfield finding Bernhardsson who then pushed a cross to Ampadu. After collecting the ball, Ampadu blasted a shot that squeaked through a pair of defenders and evaded Thomson to his right and slipped about a foot inside the left post. The goal for the midfielder was the fourth of his rookie campaign.
Just minutes after the Hawks' score, Dominique Badji had two tremendous attempts at scoring with both being thwarted by the medal frame of the goal. The first attempt ricocheted off the front edge of the right post and slowly dribbled across the goal line before being cleared out by the defensive line. The second came less than two minutes later when Badji fired a long shot that careened off the crossbar to outside of the 18-yard box.
Boston University finished with the advantage in the shots column, totaling 14 to the Hawks' six. Twelve of the Terriers' attempts came in the second half with the majority taken from beyond the 18-yard box as the home team became desperate to put the equalizing notch on the scoreboard. Thomson finished with one save while Luke Citriniti was not forced into action en route to his sixth shutout this season.
