‘The 2003 Northeastern men’s soccer season started out with what many believed expectations that were too high, as the Dogs were ranked 16th in the nation after just one win. Following a sub-par regular season, the Huskies entered the America East Conference tournament last week as the fifth seed. The post season usually brings a little magic to the table, however, and NU soaked it all up to pull off two amazing upsets.

The Huskies followed up their 3-0 first round beating of Boston University with an exciting 1-0 win over top-ranked University of Maryland-Baltimore County Saturday, and now find themselves in a familiar place, as the win gives the Huskies their third straight ticket to the America East Championship game.

Sophomore midfielder Tom Heimreid’s first goal of the season was all the Huskies needed Saturday to defeat No. 1 UMBC on their home turf. Atha Kirkopoulos, who was named to the College Soccer News National Team of the Week for Nov. 3-9, assisted on the first half goal, which came at the 10:10 mark.

“Atha really picked it up and played great,” said coach Ed Matz.

Sophomore goalkeeper Sergio Saccoccio made four saves on the way to recording his eighth shutout of the season, and hasn’t let a goal in all tournament.

“Sergio continued to play outstanding like he has all season,” Matz said.

UMBC keeper Andy Marchica had two saves in the loss.

Last Wednesday, the Huskies got a chance to avenge an earlier loss to bitter cross-town rival BU when they traveled to face the Terriers in the first round of the tournament. The last time these two teams met, BU took advantage of every NU mistake, this time the Huskies were the enforcers, shutting out the Terriers 3-0.

Learning from their past mistakes, the Huskies applied pressure from the first whistle.

Junior forward Michael Cipriano was taken down in the box at the 11:45 mark and the Huskies were awarded a penalty kick. Kirkopoulos converted the penalty kick for his sixth goal of the year and a 1-0 NU lead.

“After we scored, we tightened up,” said Parrish, who made what might have been a game winning save in the 28th minute, when a deflected ball put Saccoccio on the opposite side of a BU attacker, giving him a wide open shot. Parrish blocked the shot, and kept the Terriers off the scoreboard.

The Dogs kept the pressure on for the remaining minutes of the first half, but BU goalie Chad Comrie seemed impenetrable; that is until the waning minutes of the half, when Jay Betley booted in the rebound from a Cipriano shot, giving NU the 2-0 lead going into the break. In the second half, the Huskies defense tightened up and in the 59th minute, Cipriano put the game away with his fifth goal of the season. With a 3-0 lead in hand, the Huskies defense took over and finished off the Terrier’s season. Although NU was out shot 16-10 in the match, Saccoccio’s seven saves were enough to thwart off the Terriers and help the Huskies advance to their fifth straight Conference semifinal.

BU ends their season with a final record of 9-8-3 (4-2-3 America East).

With their two wins last week, the Huskies advance to the conference championship game, where they face off against No. 2 seeded Binghamton, who boast an 11-2-6 overall record and a 4-1-4 AE record. The Bearcats also have the No. 1 ranked defense in the country. In their only other meeting this season the Huskies were victorious, but this is a different team than the one that lost to NU 2-1 on their home turf early in the season.

“They haven’t lost in a long time,” Parrish said. “They play really tough defense and haven’t let up many goals this season.”

The Bearcats haven’t lost since Sept. 20 and haven’t given up a goal in their last eight games.

“They play great [defense], but with Atha kicking free kicks, we’re always a threat to score,” Matz said. “We’re a very experienced team. We need to continue playing like we have been.”

Although the Huskies are clearly the underdog, as they have been all tournament, they are still the only conference team to beat the Bearcats this year, and look to repeat as conference champs while preventing Binghamton from winning their first ever AE title.

“We’re just going to play our game,” Parrish said. “We have to come out hard and put pressure on them. They’ll crack.”

The America East championship game is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday in Binghamton, N.Y.