KEENE, N.H. 11/1/12 – The second seeded Keene State College men's soccer team gave up two early goals and never recovered, falling to third seed UMass-Dartmouth 3-1 in a semifinal game of the Little East Conference tournament played at Owl Athletic Complex on Thursday night.

Unless they decide to play in the ECAC New England tournament, Keene State will conclude its season with an 11-7-1 record.  The Corsairs (12-6) advance to Saturday's LEC championship game against top seed Eastern Conn.  The Warriors moved on to the finals after defeating fourth seed Plymouth 2-1 in overtime.

UMass-Dartmouth did its damage early scoring two goals in the first 17 minutes of the game.

Owl senior back Blake Nyman (Plymouth, Mass.) kept the Corsairs off the board when he stopped a shot by sophomore Elton Borges (Praia, Cape Verde) at the corner of the net at the 38 minute mark.

Less than a minute later, sophomore Josh Chao (New Bedford, Mass.) knocked in a corner kick from Borges to give UMD a 1-0 lead.

Sent in by senior Brady Paradis (Tiverton, R.I.), Borges got behind the Owls' defense and beat KSC junior goalie Malcolm Cheney (Hopkinton, Mass.) to make it a 2-0 game.

"They came out and took it to us in the first 10 minutes of the game and we were never able to get into the game," said KSC Coach Ron Butcher.  "They deserved to win because they were better than us tonight." 

Coming alive later in the half, the Owls had a chance to cut the Corsairs lead in half, but freshman Eddie Mercer's (South Hadley, Mass.) header sailed just wide of the post.

KSC maintained its pressure early in the second half, but the UMD defense blocked several of their shots. "We came out in the second half and played liked gang-busters," said Butcher.  "They were sitting back and we were going at them."

Senior Zach Banas (Monson, Mass.) put the game out of reach for the Owls when he converted a centering pass from sophomore Nick Gontijo (Hudson, Mass.) with 11:44 to play.

Nyman scored Keene State's lone goal with 1:50 to play when his drive form 35-yard out sailed jut under the cross bar.

"This has been a long season. We've haven't had the same line-up twice," said Butcher.  "But it's been a great season with the group of guys we had.  We had a patch-up line-up all season and the guys did a pretty good job."

UMass-Dartmouth had a slight edge in shots (14-13) while both team had four corners opportunities. 

Cheney finished the game with two saves for the Owls.  Senior Jon Doucette (Boxford, Mass.) made one save for the Corsairs.