A late second-half push was not enough to overcome a two-goal deficit as Freddy Hall and the Quinnipiac University men's soccer team fell to Monmouth, 2-1, in the 2009 Northeast Conference Championship Game at the Great Lawn. Senior co-captain Shane Recklet scored Quinnipiac’s lone goal of the game in 61st minute, but the top-seeded Monmouth held off Quinnipiac in the waning minutes to win its third conference title in program history.
Senior goalkeeper Hall made numerous saves in the first half that kept the Monmouth off the board. A diving save to his right on a 25-yard free kick in the eighth minute kept the game scoreless in the first half. Hall turned aside four shots in the game.
Two Monmouth goals in a four-minute span early in the second half put them up 2-0. Chase Barbieri started the scoring with a header on a crossing pass from Ryan Clark into the top left corner. Just under three minutes later, 2009 NEC Player of the Year Ryan Kinne gave Monmouth the two-goal advantage with another header to the lower corner of the goal. RJ Allen collected an assist as he put the free kick into the box to Kinne for the goal.
Recklet answered back with a goal on a loose ball rebound just eight minutes after Kinne's goal. Sophomore Conor Murphy put a long ball into the 18-yrad box that deflected off the side of a Monmouth defender. The inside of the goal box was muddy and saturated from a weekend of rain, causing the ball to stop in the middle of the box in front of Recklet. The senior midfielder pushed it past a surprised Monmouth goalkeeper Bryan Meredith for his third goal of the season.
Both teams settled into the game over the next 25 minutes of action, trading scoring opportunities. Quinnipiac began to pressure the Hawks in the final minutes, seeking the equalizer to force overtime.
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