The American International College men's soccer team will make its first postseason appearance since 2014 when it travels to face Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts, for a Northeast-10 Tournament Quarterfinal on Tuesday, November 1.
AIC has only made the Northeast-10 playoffs six times in school history, and has never won a game in the postseason. But for Luke Perry, who makes his first trip to the postseason as head coach of the AIC men's soccer team, Tuesday's game provides a chance to change history.
"This is a great opportunity for the lads to prove to themselves how good we are," Perry said. "It's an opportunity to put ourselves on the map, and to keep the momentum going of the new era for the program. The guys are very excited about the game and there's a strong belief within the locker room that we can win and move onto the semifinals on Friday."
Though it had secured a spot in the postseason with a loss from ninth-place Stonehill College earlier on Friday, AIC closed out the year and clinched the seventh seed in style with a 5-0 victory over Bentley University. Sophomore Alejandro Alvarez had two goals in the contest, including an impressive strike picked up by ESPN's SportsCenter. Senior Juan Correa also had a goal and an assist.
The Yellow Jackets enter the playoffs with some of their best soccer of the season, with a 4-2-1 record in October. They finished the regular season with an 8-8-1 record, while going 6-6-1 in conference - their second-best conference record of all time.
AIC fell to Merrimack earlier this season by a score of 2-1 in their home opener on September 13. Freshman Nikola Popovich scored the team's only goal of that game off an assist from classmate Jake Durham.
Merrimack finished the regular season with a 13-4 overall record and a 10-3 mark in conference play. They are coming off a 2-0 win on October 28, against St. Michael's.
The Warriors are led by Lars Sund, who has 15 points on the season. Jaime Cortes Torres is the goal-scoring leader with five goals this season. Tyler Packett has spent the most time in goal, receiving NE-10 Goalkeeper of the Week honors this past week. He has a .825 save percentage and has a goals-against average of 0.64. Merrimack is averaging 1.82 goals a game.
AIC and the Warriors recently met in the postseason in 2012, with the Yellow Jackets taking a 3-1 loss in that game. Now-senior goalkeeper Sebastian Tamayo played that whole game, recording three saves in the contest.
In the most recent postseason appearance for AIC in 2014, the Yellow Jackets fell to top-seeded Southern New Hampshire University in a 1-0 loss that came off a goal in the 80th minute. Tamayo had nine saves in that game, and SNHU would go on to winthe Northeast-10 Tournament.
AIC has continually stepped up in big games this season - including becoming the first team to score a goal in more than 1,000 minutes against SNHU goalkeeper Nick Zucco on September 24 - and Perry believes that Tuesday will be no different.
"Great players step up in big games," Perry said. "The lads are looking to step up and prove that we have a lot of great players and that we are a great team."
