Empire 8 Conference Men’s Soccer Championships Friday and Saturday, Nov. 7 and 8 Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken, NJ Stevens Institute of Technology is the top-seed and host team for the 2014 Empire 8 Con- ference Championship Tournament, which will be contested Friday and Saturday on the Stevens campus in Hoboken, NJ. The winners of Friday’s semifinals matches between Stevens and fourth-seeded , and second-seeded and third-seeded , will play in Saturday’s championship match, with the winner earning the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III championships.

ABOUT THE SAXONS: AU is coming off a loss average. Gutierrez shut at Utica last Saturday. Alfred’s first-round out E8 foe Elmira earlier opponent in the E8 tournament, top-seeded this year. Stevens, defeated the Saxons on Oct. 25. This is AU’s first ap- Senior Jeff Thomas leads the Saxons pearance in the Empire 8 with eight goals and three assists on the tournament since 2006, season. His eight goals and 19 points both when the Saxons fell to rank fourth in the E8. Junior Omar Mo- RIT in PK’s 4-2. AU won Thomas hamed and senior Ivan Capitan-Carro each the tournament in 2003, have four goals for AU. Sophomore Richard topping Naz 4-1 in PK’s in No. 4 Seed Lander leads the team in assists (five) and the title match and advancing to the NCAA game-winning goals (two). tournament. AU also appeared in the 2004 9-7-2 Overall Three goalies -- junior Matthew Unick, E8 tournament, dropping its first- round 3-3-1 Empire 8 sophomore Eric Witkowski, and freshman match. Chris Gutierrez -- have split time in net for The Saxons did better than many pre- the Saxons. Gutierrez has had the lion’s dicted in 2014. Picked in the preseason share of the minutes, starting the last 10 coaches’ poll to finish last in the league, AU games for the Saxons. He holds a record took fourth, posting the team’s first winning of 4-2-2 with 34 saves and 19 goals against record in a decade.

ABOUT THE DUCKS: Stevens is 12-3-1 after Renna leads the E8 in finishing the regular season with a 5-0 vic- goals against average and tory over St. John Fisher. With that shutout, shutouts with 0.62 and the tournament’s top-seeded Ducks fin- seven, respectively. ished the year unbeaten and unscored upon The Ducks have qual- in Empire 8 Conference play. ified for and won the E8 Carson Pryor leads the Ducks with 10 tournament every year goals, which are second in the E8. His 23 since joining the confer- Renna points (10 goals, three assists) also rank sec- ence in 2007. In 2013 Stevens Ducks ond in the league. Joe Celleti has six goals Stevens topped Utica No. 1 Seed and is followed by Colin Phillips with five. 2-0 to earn the automatic bid to the NCAA Jay Makula leads Stevens with fours assists. tournament. The Ducks won their first- 12-3-1 Overall Mike Renna is the top keeper for the round NCAA game, against Baruch, then fell 7-0 Empire 8 Ducks with 47 saves to just 10 goals against. in overtime to York College. ABOUT THE BOMBERS: Ithaca closed out being game-winners. Brandon Thompson, its regular season against Nazareth last Joseph Dobbins, and Jordan Filipwich are weekend, winning 1-0 in overtime to give tied for the lead in assists, with two. the Bombers a 5-1-1 E8 mark. Ithaca is Jordan Gentile has manned the net for 2-1 against teams in the the majority of the season for the Bombers tournament, defeating AU and posted 65 saves and three shutouts and Utica and falling to while allowing 23 goals. Gentile’s goals Stevens. against average and save percentage are Ithaca Bombers Sean Forward and Ca- 1.49 and 0.739 respectively. No. 2 Seed sey Williamson lead the Ithaca has qualified for the Empire 8 Con- 5-7-3 Overall Bombers in goals with five ference championship tournment 10 out 5-1-1 Empire 8 and four, respectively, with of the last 13 years. The Bombers won the two of Forward’s tallies Dobbins conference tournament once, in 2002.

ABOUT THE PIONEERS: Utica is 7-8-3 after Chris Stashko also has three goals and ending its regular season with a victory over five assists (second in the conference) for 11 visiting Alfred last Saturday. points. Shane Ruffing leads the Pioneers and the Goalkeeper David Abdou has started all Empire 8 Conference in but one game in net for the Pioneers and goals (12) and points (28) leads the Empire 8 Conference in saves and and leads his team in shots save percentage with 110 and 0.835 re- on goal (31). Bita Gazash- spectively. Abdou is third in the E8 with six vili is next in scoring for shutouts this season. Utica Pioneers Utica with four goals and Utica has made it to the E8 tournment five No. 3 Seed leads the team and Empire times since 2007. The Pioneers beat Ithaca 8 with six assists. Ruffing in the semifinal game in 2013 before falling 7-8-3 Overall and Gazashvili each have Ruffing to Stevens, 2-0, in the tournament champi- 4-3 Empire 8 two game-winning goals. onship game.

Tournament Schedule Empire 8 Standings

Semifinals Team Overall Conf. Streak Friday, Nov. 7 Stevens 12-3-1 7-0 W5

No. 4 Alfred vs. No. 1 Stevens 1 PM Ithaca 5-7-3 5-1-1 W1 Utica 7-8-3 4-3 W1 No. 3 Utica vs. No. 2 Ithaca 4 PM Alfred 9-7-2 3-3-1 L2 Finals Nazareth 5-12 3-4 L2 Saturday, Nov. 8 Houghton 8-8-2 2-3-2 W2 St. John Fisher 4-12-1 2-5 L4 Championship Match 3 PM Elmira 1-14-2 0-7 L1