PENN ST. BEHREND, MEDAILLE TO CLASH FOR AMCC MEN'S SOCCER TITLE

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 26^th 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 10^th goal of the year. Penn State Behrend would add goals in the 69^th and 86^th 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.