BOX SCORE

Center Valley, PA (November 2, 2010) – The DeSales University men's soccer team took a two-goal lead mid-way thru the second half and then held off a furious late barrage of shots and corner kicks from Misericordia University to advance to the Freedom Conference Championship game on Saturday with a 2-1 semifinal win over the Cougars on Tuesday afternoon.

The Bulldogs (14-4-2 overall) extend their current winning streak to seven games and are now unbeaten in their last eight games. DSU has also now won seven straight Freedom Conference playoff games dating back to the '05 season. Misericordia's season comes to an end with a 12-8 overall record.

The first half went by with no goals scored but DeSales certainly had its chances with junior Derek Long (Wernersville, PA/Conrad Weiser) narrowly missing a header just wide of the back post about 12 minutes in and coming up empty on a point blank shot in the middle of the box mid-way thru the half.

In the second half the Bulldogs finally broke thru in the 63rd minute when senior Sky Rimmele (Lenhartsville, PA/Moravian Academy) sent a centering pass into the middle of the box and sophomore Steve Krause (New Tripoli, PA/Northwestern) was there to volley the pass into the net for a one-goal lead. It was Krause' sixth goal of the season and his third marker in the last three games.

DSU got the ever important insurance goal just under 11 minutes later when senior Rusty Helwig (Wescosville, PA/Emmaus) flicked a 50/50 into the box and right to junior Jonathan Balfour (London, England/Conestoga {PA}) who fired a shot just inside the near post for his eighth goal of the season giving the hosts a 2-0 lead.

Misericordia beefed up its offensive pressure at that point and put some pressure on the DeSales' goal, breaking thru at the 85:39 mark when Joey Scanlon was unmarked in the box on a corner kick and his header was easily deposited into the net. MU kept the pressure on over the final four minutes as Scanlon had another header attempt saved by sophomore keeper Adam Franczak (Nazareth, PA/Nazareth) and another shot connect with the post before the Bulldogs escaped with the win.

Franczak made three saves in between the pipes but saw his personal scoreless streak come to an end at 620:51, an all-time record at DeSales. He now has a 0.59 goals against average on the season.

The Bulldogs will host the #2 seed Eastern University, a 2-1 OT winner over FDU-Florham in the other semifinal, in the Freedom title game on Saturday beginning at 1:00 pm. For those unable to get to DeSales, you will be able to follow along via LIVE Stats.