Nov. 4, 2006

Box Score

BALTIMORE, MD - Freshman Tommy McQueen (West Hartford, CT/Choate Rosemary Hall) stepped to the line and buried his penalty kick to advance Hopkins 5-3 over Gettysburg in a shootout Saturday night. The Blue Jays and the Bullets battled to a 1-1 tie after 110 minutes of play at Homewood Field in the Centennial Conference Semifinals. Hopkins, the #1 seed in the tournament, advances to the championship game for the fourth time in the six-year history of the tournament.

Junior co-captain Ben McAbee (Hagerstown, MD/North Hagerstown) gave Hopkins a 1-0 lead in the 15th minute with his team-leading 10th goal of the season. Sophomore Nicholas Gauna (Evanston, IL/Evanston) played the ball into the Gettysburg box. McAbee beat a Bullet defender to the ball at the endline, then evaded a second defender and calmly tucked the ball under a diving Matt Langston for the score.

Play was even for the next 55 minutes as both teams had their chances. McAbee had several golden chances to give his team the lead, including in the 58th minute. McAbee broke in alone on Langston and ripped a shot that looked to be going into the upper left corner before Langston punched it out. In the 73rd minute, Brad Tabor converted a centering pass from Ryan Shaffer to knot the game at 1-1.

After 20 scoreless minutes of overtime, the teams prepared for the shootout. For the Bullets it was their second in as many games. Gettysburg, the #4 seed, advanced to the semifinal match after prevailing 8-7 in a shootout over #5 seed Muhlenberg on Wednesday night.

Hopkins went first in the shoot out and Gauna converted for the Blue Jays. For the Bullets, it was Chris Bayon converting. Next up for Hopkins was sophomore Ethan Mulligan (Kearny, NJ/Kearny) followed by Gettysburg's Pat Brown. In the third round, freshman Max Venker (Oldsmar, FL/Palm Harbor University High) converted followed by Garrett Bruno for the Bullets. In the fourth round, junior Mo Hamzeh (Clarksville, MD/River Hill) tallied for the Blue Jays. Tabor, who had scored the game-tying goal in the 73rd minute then stepped to the line for the Bullets. His shot just missed the left post as it went wide. It was then that McQueen stepped up and fired the ball past to Langston's right and into the back of the net, sending the Hopkins bench spilling onto the field.

In the second semifinal on Saturday night, Franklin & Marshall defeated #3 seed Swarthmore 1-0. Matt McCall's goal in the 70th minute proved to be the gamewinner for the Diplomats.

Hopkins has won two tournament titles, in 2002 and 2004. The championship game is set for 4:00 pm at Homewood Field. Hopkins will play second-seeded Franklin & Marshall for the title. Live stats will be available through at HopkinsSports.com.