RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The Felician University men's soccer team has qualified for the 2021 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Championship tournament as the No. 7 seed.
Guided by first-year head coach Brandon Levine, Felician (6-9-1, 5-6) reaches the CACC playoffs for the first time since 2011. On Monday, the Golden Falcons will travel to Newark, Del., to take on No. 2 seed and No. 14 nationally-ranked Wilmington University in first-round postseason action at the WU Athletics Complex. Kickoff time is 1 p.m.
Directions to the Wilmington University Athletics Complex are available at https://wildcats.athletics.wilmu.edu/information/facilities. Ticket prices for Monday's game are $10 for adults and $5 for children, students (with ID) and senior citizens. Children aged three years and under will be admitted free. Wilmington will also offer a free live webstream at https://caccnetwork.com/wilmington/?bfplayvid=320213 and a live stats feed at http://athletics.wilmu.edu/sports/msoc/2021-22/boxscores/20211108_5qmr.xml.
More information about the 2021 CACC Men's Soccer Tournament is available at https://caccathletics.org/sports/Championship/21-22/21MSOC.
Felician is making its 10th CACC tournament appearance overall, and is seeking its third championship. The Golden Falcons captured the conference crown in 2000 and 2001 and have reached the finals on two other occasions. This season, they rank 10th in the 12-team CACC in offense and ninth in team defense, and are 3-4-1 in true road matches.
"We've tried to take as professional an approach as possible as a coaching staff and I think the boys have responded admirably," Levine said. "One of the first on-field goals we set for them was reaching the conference playoffs. We are happy to have achieved that, but definitely are not satisfied to just be at the party."
Senior forward Raul Abellan (Girona, Spain/IES Sobreques) tops Felician with 17 points on six goals and five assists. The Golden Falcons have received four goals and one assist from graduate defender Xabier Aizpuru (Barakaldo, Spain/Beurko BHI), while sophomore forward Carlos Alonso (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain/Colegio Salesianas) owns a goal and five assists. Senior goalkeeper George Hernandez (Paterson, N.J./PCTI) has played to a 2.25 goals-against average with two shutouts.
Wilmington (15-2-1, 9-2) is seeking its first CACC championship since 2007. The Wildcats are listed at No. 3 in the most recent NCAA Division II Committee Super Region 1 ranking. Wilmington, which is 8-1 at home, tops the conference with 61 goals. Senior forward Shawn Genus (St. Elizabeth, Jamaica/St. Elizabeth Technical) is the CACC's second-leading scorer with 40 points on 17 goals and six assists. Senior forward Hakim Williams (St. Catherine, Jamaica/St. Georges College) has eight goals and three assists, and freshman defender Richard Thompson (Montego Bay, Jamaica/Jamaica College) owns two goals and a team-high 10 assists. Freshman keeper Konstantinos Parisis (Thessaloniki, Greece/Anatolia College) has a 0.83 GAA and seven shutouts.
Wilmington won the 2021 regular-season meeting between the schools, 3-2, on October 16 in Lyndhurst, N.J. The Wildcats lead the all-time series, 17-6. The Wildcats and Golden Falcons have met twice previously in the CACC Tournament (Felician is 2-0), but not since 2005.
"We scored multiple goals against Wilmington in our first meeting and were unfortunate not to get more from that game," Levine said. "We'll go into Monday with great confidence and a plan we believe will work. We have a hunger not to be satisfied by merely participating in the playoffs but by making our mark on them."
Post University will host the semifinals and finals of the CACC Tournament at LaMoy Field on its Waterbury, Conn., campus. Monday's winner will take on the Nyack College-Dominican College first-round winner on Friday at either 10 a.m. or 12:30 p.m.
The 2021 CACC Championship game is slated for Sunday, November 14, at 1 p.m. in Waterbury.
