Men's Soccer Rocks Mercy, 5-0

Bridgeport, Conn.-The University of Bridgeport men's soccer team exploded for a season-high five goals and clinched at least the number two seed and a home semifinal match in the upcoming 2012 East Coast Conference Championship Tournament with a 5-0 home win over the visiting Mercy College Mavericks on Saturday evening.  The Purple Knights are now 9-7-0 overall and 7-1-0 in ECC action.  UB is tied for the top spot in the conference standings with LIU Post at 7-1-0 with one conference match remaining for each team.  If the teams stay tied in the standings, the Pioneers will take the one number seed in the ECC Championship by virtue of the 3-1 win over Bridgeport on October 6.  With Saturday's loss, Mercy is now 10-4-2 overall and an even 4-4-0 in conference play.

The Purple Knights wasted no time in scoring their first goal on Saturday when freshman Luis Fajardo (Danbury, Conn.) scored his first goal of the 2012 campaign off an assist from classmate Erick Romero (Norwalk, Conn.) just 45 seconds after kickoff.

Fajardo's goal would be the only tally of the first half, but UB would erupt for four goals in the final 45 minutes of action led by junior Andreas Blanke's (Gothenburg, Sweden) brace, as he scored goals at the 57:31 and 81:21 marks of play.  Blanke now has a team-leading seven goals on the season.  He also added an assist on the night

Freshmen Daniel Augenstien (Sandnes, Norway) and Erick Romero, who assisted on his team's first goal of the tilt, also scored their first goals of the season in the second half to make the final score, 5-0.

Junior Han Park (Westbury, N.Y.) had two assists in the game, and sophomore Danny Ruiz (Medellin, Columbia) contributed a helper to round out the scoring for the Purple Knights in the victory.

Freshman Augustin Prados (Madrid, Spain) and senior Danny Hernandez (Brentwood, N.Y.) each made three saves to share the clean sheet for Bridgeport.  As a team, UB has recorded four shutouts on the year.

The UB men's soccer team will close out its 2012 regular season schedule at Dowling College on Saturday, October 27.  Game time on Long Island is set for 1:00 p.m.