DeSales Named #5 Seed in ECAC South Region Men’s Soccer Tournament

Senior Tony Aufiero will lead the Bulldogs in their first ECAC Tournament game since the 2004 season.

Center Valley, PA (November 9, 2009) – The DeSales University men's soccer team was named the #5 seed in the ECAC South Region Men's Soccer Tournament and will be traveling to play the #4 seed, Lebanon Valley College, in the first round of the eight team tournament on Wednesday beginning at 1:00 pm as announced by the organization on Monday morning.

The Bulldogs (10-7 overall) will be making their fourth appearance in the ECAC Tournament after they appeared in three straight years from 2002 thru 2004. DSU is 0-3 in its three previous appearances. Lebanon Valley College is 10-7-2 overall. These two teams met earlier this season with the Flying Dutchmen topping the Bulldogs 3-2 at DeSales. DSU is 17-7-2 all-time vs. Lebanon Valley.

The rest of the field consists of the #1 seed PSU-Behrend (15-5-2 overall) taking on the #8 seed Neumann University (9-8-2 overall), the #2 seed PSU-Abington (12-4 overall) taking on the #7 seed Wesley College (10-9 overall), and the #3 seed PSU-Altonna (13-6-1 overall) taking on the #6 seed, Stevenson University (12-9 overall). All first round games will be played on Wednesday at the highest seed home site with the four winners advancing to the final four which will be played at the highest remaining seed on Saturday and Sunday with times to be announced.

Sophomore Jonathan Balfour (London, England/Conestoga (PA)) leads the Bulldogs in scoring with nine goals and two assists for 20 points. Freshman Steve Krause (New Tripoli, PA/Northwestern) adds six goals and five assists for 17 points and sophomore Derek Long (Wernersville, PA/Conrad Weiser) has seven goals for 14 points.

Junior Aaron Gildner (Slatington, PA/Parkland) has three goals and four assists for 10 points and was recently named to the CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District Second-Team and senior Tony Aufiero (Wall, NJ/Wall) has three goals and two assists for eight points, while also anchoring a defense that has allowed just 23 goals in 17 games this season.

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