By Zach Hayes, News Correspondent

The men’s soccer team saw its 2009-10 season come to an end with a 1-0 loss to UNC-Wilmington in the finals of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) tournament Sunday. The Huskies end their campaign 10-8-1 overall after starting the season 1-5, and a conference mark of 8-2-1, which broke a school record for victories.
The loss in the CAA final was the second in two years for the Huskies, who fell by the same score last season against George Mason. This year’s falter was not for a lack of scoring chances, as NU held a 16-7 shot advantage. The lone goal came in the 86th minute from UNC-Wilmington’s junior forward Nassim Berhouni off of a deep throw in from sophomore defender Christian Davidson. The kick sailed past senior goaltender Scott Partridge for the game-winning score.
‘At the end it was something we dealt with all along,’ Huskies head coach Brian Ainscough said. ‘UNC-Wilmington is the type of team that doesn’t score a lot of goals, but they score from a lot of corner kicks and throw-ins. We controlled them pretty well throughout the game, but the last one, unfortunately, was a scramble in the box that, if you’re looking at it from our side, was a very ugly goal and I’m sure they didn’t think it was pretty either. We knew it was coming, but they got the ball in deep pretty well and finished it off.’
Northeastern used its usual stifling defense to limit the Seahawks to three shots on goal in the entire contest. All-CAA tournament selections senior midfielder Lars Oklund and senior defenseman Matt Sanford captained the effort along with Partridge, who battled his goalkeeper counterpart, UNC-Wilmington’s Brock Duckworth, to a draw for 85 minutes. Partridge and Duckworth finished first and second in goals against average, respectively, in the CAA this season.
A near goal for NU came in the 68th minute when freshman forward Andre Ciliotta’s header flew just high of the crossbar on a feed from All-CAA first-team selection and junior midfielder Santiago Bedoya. Ciliotta had another opportunity in the 82nd minute but his header once again sailed high of the net, this time on a pass from senior forward Matthew Laning. Ciliotta led all Huskies with seven shots in the contest to finish a freshman campaign of four goals and six assists on 20 shots.
The Huskies reached the final following Ciliotta’s overtime goal to defeat William & Mary 2-1 in the CAA tournament semifinal Friday night. Partridge totaled three saves and the Huskies out-shot the Tribe 18-14 in the contest, but it wasn’t until Bedoya found Ciliotta on a well-placed cross to finish off the victory. Bedoya also tallied an assist on the first Northeastern goal on a 2-on-1 break with CAA rookie of the year, freshman forward Don Anding. Anding finished the task with his seventh goal of the season.
Ciliotta and Anding were two of many contributors on a team that, once again, fell just short of reaching the NCAA tournament. While the ultimate goal wasn’t reached, Ainscough said he is proud of his team as a whole.
‘We knew we had good players and they all meshed together and became a good team,’ Ainscough said. ‘We started off the season with some new players that ended up being very important to our group. We took some tough losses and the team was at a crossroads when we were 1-5, but fortunately the team showed great character with the likes of Lars Oklund and Matt Sanford and [senior defender] Brendan Ennis as a captain.
‘The results weren’t going our way but their character allowed us to combat it, believe and turn the season around,’ he said. ‘We met a lot of goals this season. Unfortunately one that we missed was making the NCAA tournament, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort.’