Knights fall by one to Alvernia

SWARTHMORE, Pa.: Playing on neutral territory, Arcadia University finally faced off against the Crusaders of Alvernia to determine their playoff fate, and after 54 minutes of scoreless soccer, Alvernia scored the game's only goal and got sound netminding from Ben Diller, who matched the Knights in saves on their 6 shots on net. With tonight's loss and Lebanon Valley's 2-0 win against Lycoming on Sunday, Arcadia misses out on a playoff berth for the Commonwealth Conference Championship which begins on Thursday, where Alvernia will be the No.2 seed.

The Knights played well in the opening half, testing Diller three times. Alvernia did the same, forcing Arcadia sophomore netminder Ryan Lantzy (Pheonixville, PA/Phoenixville) to make two saves to preseve a scoreless contest by halftime.

Eric Franks scored the gamewinner for the Crusaders just inside the 54th minute making due on a beautfiul pass from Joe Rymond. From that point on, Arcadia out-shot Alvernia 3-2.

Shortly after the goal by Franks, Arcadia first year Joe Bertucci (Giblosboro, NJ/Eastern Regional) got a shot, but Diller was spot on. Senior Brian Devlin (Philadelphia, PA/Father Judge) stepped up next and he too had his shot saved in the 64th minute. In the 77th minute Lantzy made his final two stops to keep his Knights just a strike away from knotting it up. Sophomore Nick Morris (Philadelphia, PA/Father Judge), with 3 minutes remaining, tested the Alvernia netminder one final time hoping to tie the game but came up empty.

Tonight's game was played at Swarthmore College's Cunningham Complex, the second time visiting for the Knight's this season. A power outage at Alvernia University due to Saturday's sotrm forced the campus to close through Tuesday and the game to be changed to a playable site.

Arcadia ends the 2011 campaign with a 9-8-1 overall record while going 3-3-1 against their Commonwealth opponents, missing out on the post-season for the first time since 2008.

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