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Nov 7, 2009

#2 Wheaton Survives Double-Overtime Scare From #6 Clark, 3-2, In NEWMAC Men's Soccer Semifinals

BABSON PARK, Mass. - First-year Max Swanson (Lexington, Mass.) scored the game-winning goal with eight seconds remaining in the second overtime to lift the second-seeded Wheaton College Lyons to a thrilling 3-2 victory over sixth-seeded Clark University in the second semifinal of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Men's Soccer Championship Tournament at Babson's Hartwell-Rogers Field on Saturday afternoon. With the win, the Lyons (18-3-1), ranked sixth in the region by the NCAA and 18th in the country by the NSCAA, advanced to Sunday's championship game, where they will meet top-seeded Babson at 1 p.m.

Despite a valiant effort, the Cougars, who played a man down for the final 60 minutes of play due to a red card, saw their season come to a close with a record of 9-7-2.

The two teams played evenly in the scoreless first half, which saw Wheaton enter the break with a slight 9-7 edge in shots. Clark's red card then opened the game up for the Lyons, who mounted a commanding 17-3 shot advantage in the second stanza.

Wheaton netted the game's first goal in the 57th minute, as junior David Winrow (South Weymouth, Mass.) took a corner kick from first-year David Turina (North Yarmouth, Maine) in the middle of the field and fired a 25-yard missile into the upper right corner for his first goal of the season at 56:54. Clark would answer less than seven minutes later, as junior Tim Doenmez (Dublin, N.H.) found the lower right corner from the left side for his sixth of the year at 63:44.

The Lyons regained the lead when first-year Cecil Jeffrey (Framingham, Mass.) collected the ball at the top of the box, spun around a defender, and placed a shot inside the right post for his third of the season at 80:26. However, the Cougars rallied once again off the ensuing kickoff, as first-year Gianluca Ranallo (Scarsdale, N.Y.) hit a long serve from the right side that was headed over the keeper and in by senior Preben Gietz (Waterloo, Belgium) at 81:08. Gietz's first goal of the fall evened the score at 2-2, and neither team would score in the final 8:52 of regulation as the contest headed into overtime.

Wheaton continued to add to its shot advantage in the extra sessions, outshooting Clark 3-0 in the first OT and 4-0 in the second. However, the Lyons were kept off the board until the final 10 seconds of play, when Swanson took a pass from sophomore Chris Thomas (Cumberland, Maine) on the right side and headed it past Clark's first-year keeper Ryan King (Brimfield, Mass.) for the game-winning goal with just eight ticks remaining. It was Swanson's fifth goal of the season, and it gave the Lyons the thrilling 3-2 victory.

King was outstanding in defeat for the Cougars, finishing with 10 saves. Junior Cole Davidson (Needham, Mass.) turned away one shot in earning the win for Wheaton.

The top two seeds in the conference tourney, Babson and Wheaton will now meet in the title game for the fourth time since the inception of the NEWMAC in 1998. Wheaton has won all three of the previous meetings, topping the Beavers in 2000, 2006, and 2007. Together, the two powerhouse programs have combined to win 10 of the 11 championships in the conference's history, with Wheaton winning seven and Babson taking three. The Beavers are currently the defending conference champs after defeating MIT in the finals last fall.