HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College men's soccer team has made the Centennial Conference Tournament in each of its seven years under head coach Shane Rineer. The Fords will begin their 2017 postseason journey this Tuesday with a 2:30 p.m. match against Dickinson on Walton Field. Having won back-to-back Centennial Conference Championships as the No. 1 seed in the tournament, the Fords enter this year as the No. 4 seed. However, they have experienced plenty of success coming out of the first round game in recent history.
Haverford has played in the Centennial Conference Championship match in five of the six previous seasons, winning three conference titles. The Fords have made it to the championship match both times they played in the first round game, upsetting the No. 1 seed in the semifinals during both the 2011 and 2014 seasons. Haverford will be looking to avenge a 3-2 overtime defeat at the hands of Dickinson during the regular season. These two sides have met four times during the last six postseason trips for the Fords. Haverford is 2-1-1 in postseason matches against the Red Devils, winning the most recent matchup which came during the 2015 championship match.
Nick Jannelli, a two-time Centennial Conference Offensive Player of the Week selection this fall, leads Haverford with 13 goals and four assists. The reigning Centennial Conference Rookie of the Year has six game-winning goals on the season and is a perfect 4-for-4 in penalty kick chances this year. An all-conference selection last year, Ben Field is second on the team with three goals and one assist, while Nicholas Montgomery and Peter Baroff also have multiple goals this season.
In the midfield, seniors Dorian Wirz and Russell Nicholson are returning All-Centennial Conference performers while Michael Carr has started all 17 contests this season and scored his first goal of the season this past weekend against Swarthmore. Juniors Reiss Berger, Ben Clark, and Nick John have all been constant presences on defense. The Fords have totaled eight shutouts this season. Jeremy Astesano holds seven of those clean sheets with a 1.03 GAA in 15 starts. Michael Iacono has appeared in four matches, has one shutout, and a 0.61 GAA in just under 300 minutes of game action this fall.
Dickinson is led offensively by Kevin Gilbert who has 10 goals this season. Matt Edmonds and Brendan McGovern follow him with six and five goals, respectively. Edmonds also leads the team with six assists this season. In goal, Frederick Meagher and John Baney have split time in goal. Meagher is 4-2-2 with a 1.42 GAA in 825 minutes. Baney holds a 1.45 GAA in 680 minutes with a 6-3 record.
The winner of Tuesday's first round matchup will advance to Friday's semifinal against top-seeded Johns Hopkins. That match would start at 5:30 p.m. while the Centennial Conference Championship would be played at 1 p.m. on Sunday. Second-seeded Franklin & Marshall and third-seeded Gettysburg will make up the other semifinal on Friday night to round out the five team playoff field.
The Centennial Conference Tournament winner will be granted an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. This week's playoff action will also give the Fords another chance to pick up some key regionally-ranked victories as Gettysburg (No. 3), Johns Hopkins (No. 4), and Dickinson (No. 6) are all ahead of the Fords (No. 7) in the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Rankings release.