Somerville, MA - Cooler heads prevailed as the sixth-seeded Emerson College Lions (11-7) pulled off an upset over the third-seeded Suffolk University Rams in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Quarterfinals. Both teams had to battle through tough windy elements, but the Lions capitalized outlasting the Rams by a 1-0 score.
Emerson scored the game's lone goal on a controversial call. After a throw-in by the Lions' Casey Shane (New York, NY), the ball appeared to have deflected off a Rams' player that would have negated the goal, but the referee ruled it was headed in by sophomore Cory Walls (Scituate, MA). The goal was Walls' third of the season.
The Rams were forced to play the final 23-minutes of the game short-handed as their leading scorer sophomore Danny Lloyd (Tegucigalpa, Honduras) was issued a red-card for a verbal altercation with the referee.
Frustrations for the Rams mounted from early in the first half as the Rams missed three scoring opportunities. Freshman Ben Rollins (Lee, NH) had the Rams' first chance as he picked up a rebound off of a shot from senior Bernhard Lotterer (Lima, Peru), but Rollins' shot hit off the left side post of the goal. Lloyd had another Suffolk chance after an Emerson foul with 9 minutes remaining in the first half. On the free kick, Lloyd kicked in a laser that hit the top crossbar on the Lions' goal. Then three minutes later, Lotterer had his shot blocked by Emerson goalkeeper Noah Price (Apex, NC), but the gusty wind pushed the ball just far enough from a streaking Rollins cutting off his angle to the goal and another missed scoring opportunity for the Rams.
Price made seven saves in the game for Emerson picking up his fifth win of the season and second shutout of the year.
Tensions continued to mount in the game's final 15 minutes as six yellow cards were issued between both teams, forcing the Rams to play 11-on-9 in the final thirty-seconds of regulation.
Junior Jack DeJesus (Swampscott, MA) made seven saves in net during the hard-luck loss.
With the win the Lions will now advance to the GNAC Semi-Finals on Tuesday as they take on # 2 seed Lasell College. The Lasers defeated Mount Ida College, 6-0 on Saturday to advance.