Courtesy Williams Sports Information

Box Score

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - In order to decide the 2006 NESCAC Men's Soccer Championship, today's title match between Middlebury and Williams had to go to penalty kicks. In a game officially ruled a 0-0 tie, Williams edged the Panthers 3-2 in penalty kicks to claim the 2006 crown. Jeff Castiglione made a diving save against Billy Brennan to end the contest.

Despite the total lack of goal scoring, the fans who made the trek out to Cole Field today were treated to a well-played match on a gorgeous fall day in New England. Both teams moved the ball well, showing that they belonged in the conference title game.

The closest either team got to scoring in the 1st half was a shot on a wide-open net that Pat Huffer missed high. Zach Toth once again was a huge presence in the goal for Middlebury today, making 6 saves. Toth and the Middlebury defense officially earn a shutout, despite falling in penalty kicks.

"This was a highly competitive match on a great day," said Williams coach Mike Russo. "We created a few chances during the game, but I give Middlebury a lot of credit for hanging in there really well. They had a much tougher game yesterday than we did, and I think that helped us."

As the minutes ticked away, overtime became a near-certainty. However, a scrum in front of the Middlebury goal with under a minute to play in regulation resulted in a Williams shot that struck the crossbar, coming just inches from going into the goal. However, it was not to be, and overtime awaited.

Both teams maintained a fairly conservative style in OT in anticipation of the ensuing penalty kicks. After the 20 minutes of scoreless play, the two goalkeepers, Jeff Castiglione of Williams and Zach Toth of Middlebury, walked to the east goal to face their shots.

First to shoot was John Sales of Middlebury, who sent a perfect ball just inside the right post to give the Panthers a 1-0 advantage. Patrick Huffer of Williams tied things up when he sent a shot left as Toth dove right.

Vandy Shanholt of Middlebury and John Hillman of Williams exchanged successful PKs. After this, Middlebury's Winston Rains sent a blistering shot that ricocheted off the right post and away from the goal. However, Williams was unable to capitalize on this opportunity, as Zach Toth saved Sam Empson's ensuing shot.

Castiglione then made a spectacular save on a David Lee shot. Brett Olsen of Williams put the Panthers in a hole when he nailed his shot to the bottom left corner.

It all came down to Billy Brennan against Jeff Castiglione. Were Brennan to miss the goal or have his shot saved, the conference title belonged to Williams. Once again, Castiglione made a diving save, and Williams was named the 2006 NESCAC Men's Soccer Champions.

"This was a terrific soccer match," said Middlebury coach David Saward. "We fought hard and hung in there. We could have stolen it from them, but I'm still very proud of how we played. Williams has great players."

Williams maintained a significant 22-6 margin on shots. The Panthers were without Casey Ftorek on offense, who had to sit out Sunday's match after earning a red card late in the match Saturday against Amherst.

2006 NESCAC MEN’S SOCCER CHAMPIONSHIP
First Round - Sunday, October 29 at Higher Seeds
at No. 2 Amherst 3, No. 7 Tufts 3 - 2OT
Amherst advances on penalty kicks, 3-2
No. 6 Bates 1, at No. 3 Wesleyan 0 - 2OT
No. 5 Middlebury 2, at No. 4 Bowdoin 1

Semifinals - Saturday, November 4 at Williams
at No. 1 Williams 3, No. 6 Bates 0
No. 5 Middlebury 1, vs. No. 2 Amherst 0

Championship - Sunday, November 5 at Williams
at No. 1 Williams 0, No. 5 Middlebury 0 - 2OT
Williams earns championship on penalty kicks, 3-2

2006 NESCAC MEN’S SOCCER CHAMPIONSHIP

First Round - Sunday, October 29 at Higher Seeds
No. 7 at No. 2
No. 6 at No. 3
No. 5 at No. 4

Semifinals - Saturday, November 4 at No. 1 Seed
No. 1 vs. Lowest Remaining Seed
Remaining First Round Winners

Championship - Sunday, November 5
Semifinal Winners

Format
The top 7 teams in the conference will qualify for the NESCAC Men's Soccer Championship.  First round games will be conducted on Sunday, October 29, 2006 with the semifinals and championship games conducted on Saturday, November 4 and Sunday, November 5, respectively. The tournament champion will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship. 

Seeding
Seeding will be based on final conference standings of round robin play. Standings will be based on team winning percentages. Ties shall count as half a win.

The number one seed will receive a bye in the first round and will host the semifinals and championship game.  The 7th seed will play at the 2nd seed, the 6th seed will play at the 3rd seed, and the 5th seed will play at the 4th seed.  Teams will be re-bracketed after first round games and the lowest remaining seed will face the number one seed.

Pairings
Pairings will be announced Saturday, October 28.

Tie Breaking Procedures
Ties will be broken as follows:

Head-to-head result (if teams play each other more than once during the regular season, the game that appears on the league schedule will be the game that is counted).

If teams tied during the regular season, or there is a 3-way or more tie, the following tie breaking procedure will be used:

Note: In case of ties among three or more schools, the criteria above will be applied in order until a team is (or teams are) separated.  At that point, the process begins anew (returning to the first criteria) with the remaining teams.  The process is continued until the tie is eventually broken.  In cases where only a random action will break the tie of three or more teams, the random action will be applied to all teams involved in the tie.  For example, if three teams are tied and only a random action (pulling names out of a hat) will break the tie, each name will be pulled and seeded in order of being pulled.  Also, in the event that there are two (or more) groups of teams tied at different spots in the standings and the only criteria left that can be used to break those ties is a coin flip/random action, the coin flip/random action used to break the tie of one group (to put teams in rank order) will not affect the tie breaking procedures of the other group(s) of tied teams.