Courtesy Amherst Sports Information

Box Score

AMHERST, Mass. - Second-seeded Middlebury came away with a 1-0 victory over top-seeded Amherst Sunday afternoon in the final game of the 2007 NESCAC Men's Soccer Championship at Gooding Field. The win secured the Panthers their second NESCAC title since winning the inaugural tournament in 2000.

In the 16th minute, the first great scoring opportunity of the game presented itself in Amherst's favor. First-year midfielder Ian Rothkopf (Harvard, Mass.) chipped a ball to junior forward Nick Lynch (Kingston, Jamaica) at the corner of the 18-yard box. Lynch brought the ball down with a crafty touch, and hit a screaming shot low, just outside the far post for a goal kick.

Middlebury almost broke the scoreless tie with eight minutes remaining until halftime when junior defender Corey Moffat (Berkeley, Calif.) poked a loose ball on frame. The shot beat Amherst goaltender Jeff Grover (Framingham, Mass.), but not the frame as it hit the far post, before flying across the goal and off the near post for a Jeff defender to clear.

At halftime, Amherst held a 7-5 edge in shots, while each side had put just 3 shots on frame.  For the second straight day, neither the Lord Jeffs, nor the Panthers, were able to put home a goal in the opening half. In the semifinal round, Amherst scored a pair of second half tallies, while Middlebury scored a single goal.

Middlebury looked fresh after halftime, and had the first four shots of the second half. Despite playing a double overtime match just 24 hours earlier, the Panthers were seemingly unfazed by fatigue.

The Panthers struck first in the 60th minute when junior striker Casey Ftorek (Bedford, Mass.) knocked home his own rebound after an Amherst defender stopped his initial try on the goal line.

Trailing by a score, Amherst changed formations to push numbers forward into the Middlebury box. The Jeffs created a number of scoring chances with the more offensively minded line-up, but with 10 minutes showing in regulation, Middlebury still held the lead.

Amherst continued pressure, but was unable to find the equalizer. The Jeffs were held scoreless for the first time in 2007. With the result, Middlebury will receive the automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament, while Amherst will likely get an at-large bid.

2007 NESCAC MEN'S SOCCER CHAMPIONSHIP
First Round - Sunday, October 28 at Higher Seeds
at No. 2 Middlebury 3, No. 7 Connecticut College 0
at No. 3 Williams 4, No. 6 Trinity 2
No. 5 Bowdoin 2, at No. 4 Wesleyan 0

Semifinals - Saturday, November 3 at Amherst
vs. No. 2 Middlebury 1, No. 3 Williams 1 - 2OT
Middlebury advances on Penalty Kicks, 3-0
at No. 1 Amherst 2, No. 5 Bowdoin 1

Championship - Sunday, November 4 at Amherst
No. 2 Middlebury 1, at No. 1 Amherst 0

2007 NESCAC MEN'S SOCCER CHAMPIONSHIP

First Round - Sunday, October 28 at Higher Seeds
12:30 p.m.
No. 7 at No. 2
No. 6 at No. 3
No. 5 at No. 4

Semifinals - Saturday, November 3 at No. 1 Seed
11:00 a.m./1:30 p.m.
No. 1 vs. Lowest Remaining Seed
Remaining First Round Winners

Championship - Sunday, November 4
Semifinal Winners - 12:00 p.m.

Format
The top 7 teams in the conference will qualify for the NESCAC Men's Soccer Championship.  First round games will be conducted on Sunday, October 28, 2007 with the semifinals and championship games conducted on Saturday, November 3 and Sunday, November 4, respectively.  The tournament champion will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship. 

Seeding
Seeding will be based on final conference standings of round robin play. Standings will be based on team winning percentages. Ties shall count as half a win.

The number one seed will receive a bye in the first round and will host the semifinals and championship game.  The 7th seed will play at the 2nd seed, the 6th seed will play at the 3rd seed, and the 5th seed will play at the 4th seed.  Teams will be re-bracketed after first round games and the lowest remaining seed will face the number one seed.

Pairings
Pairings will be announced Saturday, October 27.

Tie Breaking Procedures
Ties will be broken as follows:

Head-to-head result (if teams play each other more than once during the regular season, the game that appears on the league schedule will be the game that is counted).

If teams tied during the regular season, or there is a 3-way or more tie, the following tie breaking procedure will be used:

• Best record among tying teams, against one another (head-to-head).
• Most conference wins (in games that are part of the conference schedule and count toward league standings).
• Comparison of results of conference games played against top 4 teams (including all teams at the 4th spot).
• Comparison of results of conference games played against top 8 teams (including all teams at the 8th spot).
• Comparison of results of conference games played against conference teams in rank order.
• Comparisons shall be made one team at a time starting with the highest ranked team.
• If the tie remains after comparing results against the highest ranked team, the results against the next team in rank order shall be used. This process is continued until a winner is determined.
• Coin flip (or similar random action involving all tied teams).

Note: In case of ties among three or more schools, the criteria above will be applied in order until a team is (or teams are) separated.  At that point, the process begins anew (returning to the first criteria) with the remaining teams.  The process is continued until the tie is eventually broken.  In cases where only a random action will break the tie of three or more teams, the random action will be applied to all teams involved in the tie.  For example, if three teams are tied and only a random action (pulling names out of a hat) will break the tie, each name will be pulled and seeded in order of being pulled.  Also, in the event that there are two (or more) groups of teams tied at different spots in the standings and the only criteria left that can be used to break those ties is a coin flip/random action, the coin flip/random action used to break the tie of one group (to put teams in rank order) will not affect the tie breaking procedures of the other group(s) of tied teams.