KEENE, N.H.. 11/2/01 - Mike Monteiro (Hudson, MA.) and Casey Banks (Westborough, MA.) had a goal and an assist each to lead the Keene State College men's soccer team to a 3-0 victory over Western CT State University in a Little East Conference semifinal tournament game played Friday at Owl Stadium Complex.

Winners of 12 straight, the top seeded Owls (17-3) will host second seed Plymouth State College (11-5) in the Conference Championship game on Sunday at noon. PSC advanced to the title game with a 2-0 win over UMA-Dartmouth earlier in the day.

The Owls scored two first half goals on two well-executed crossing plays. Monteiro gave KSC a 1-0 lead two-minutes into the game when he put a pass from Banks into the corner of the net. Ten minutes later, John Cortes (Wilbraham, MA.) put away a cross from Montiero to make it 2-0. It was Monteiro's third of the season and first of the year for Cortese.

KSC goalie D.J. Nordmark (So. Windsor, CT), who finished with six saves, preserved his shutout when he robbed Colonials' Ari Tsingerliolis at the doorstep with 11:45 to play. It was Nordmark's seventh shutout this season. Banks completed the scoring late in the game when he was at the end of a 2-on-1 break with John Harke (Leeds, MA.) Banks now has 11 goals this season.

Mark Pataky (Trumbull, CT) finished with six saves for the fifth-seed WCSU (9-8-4). Andrew Mazzei gave up the final Owl goal.

"I thought the first 20 minutes we played as good of soccer as you want to see," said KSC Coach Ron Butcher. "We had two nice goals and we could have had three or four."

Keene State, which defeated Plymouth State 2-1 in a double-overtime-game back on Oct. 6, will be looking for its second LEC title. They defeat PSC 1-0 in an OT game to claim the Conference Championship in 1999.