RINDGE, N.H. (November 6, 2021) -- The No. 4 nationally-ranked Franklin Pierce University men's soccer team opened the postseason in style on Saturday night, as the top-seeded Ravens rolled to a 5-0 victory over eighth-seeded Southern Connecticut State in the quarterfinal round of the Northeast-10 Conference Championship at Sodexo Field. Four different players had a goal and an assist each, and the Ravens featured five different goal-scorers on the night.

With the win, Franklin Pierce improves to 17-1-0 and advances to meet fourth-seeded Southern New Hampshire in the semifinal round, after the Penmen tallied a 1-0 victory at home over Adelphi on Saturday afternoon. The semifinal round of the NE10 Championship is set for Wednesday, Nov. 10, and the Ravens will host SNHU at 4 p.m. at Sodexo Field.

With the loss, SCSU sees its season draw to a close at 4-12-1.

The regular-season champions asserted their dominance early, as graduate student Aaron Acevedo Artes (Valencia, Spain) took a feed from graduate student Jonas Cervera Anchel (Chiva, Spain) and put a shot into the top-right corner of SCSU's net from distance to give the Ravens an early lead in the 16^th minute. It was his fourth goal of the season.

Things got dicey in the middle of the half, with yellow cards being handed out on each side of the ball.

In the 38^th minute, Cervera Anchel received an assist from freshman Braudilio Rodrigues (Lisbon, Portugal), and sent a shot from the center of the field into the bottom right corner of the net to make it 2-0 heading into halftime.

Southern Connecticut State struggled to get anything going on offense, as the Owls recorded only one shot attempt in the first half, and only two for the game.

The Ravens stormed out of the gates in the second half, with a pair of goals in the first 11 minutes. Rodrigues struck just 23 seconds into the stanza, off a feed from graduate student Antonio Santos Ferreira (Madrid, Spain), for his eighth of the year. Santos Ferreira then put away one of his own, his fifth of the campaign, in the 56^th minute, on an assist from graduate student Pedro Juan Vicente (Elche, Spain).

In the 64^th minute, graduate student Yannik Felber (Vallendar, Germany) finished off a cross from the right side from Acevedo Artes to cap the scoring and create the 5-0 final.

Junior Kosta Maniatis (Montreal, Quebec) did not have to face a shot over 63:15 in the Franklin Pierce net on the way to the win (14-1-0). Graduate student Andrea Scapolo came on for the final 26:45 and made one save to finish off the shutout. Senior Aren Seeger (2-2-0) made five saves against 10 shots at the other end of the field for SCSU.