By Jim Fenton, The Enterprise (Brockton)
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. -- Bridgewater State University men's soccer players have T-shirts for practice with the slogan "Adapt and Overcome.''
That is exactly what the Bears did on the way to becoming Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament champions.
BSU had to vacate four regular-season victories, a punishment issued by the conference for violating a rule when a player took part in two games for another amateur team in season.
That dropped the Bears from the No. 1 seed to the No. 5 seed in the MASCAC tournament, meaning they would need three road victories to earn the conference title.
BSU overcame that obstacle and became MASCAC champion on Sunday afternoon with a 3-2 win over Framingham State University.
The Bears (17-3-1) will find out today their opponent in the NCAA Division 3 tournament that begins this week. It will be BSU's fifth trip to the NCAAs.
"It was definitely nice to see the guys get the win,'' said coach Brendan Adams, whose team also won the MASCAC tourney in 2004, 2007 and 2013. "They deserved it.
"I give the guys a lot of credit. We have on our practice shirts 'Adapt and Overcome.' That's exactly what they did. You get a lot of curveballs thrown at you in life and it's how you deal with it.
"They took it upon themselves. There was a lot of adversity they had to overcome, going on the road for three games. I give them so much credit. They dug down deep and got the win.''
Tournament most valuable player Conor Murtagh scored twice and assisted on another. He has 17 goals and eight assists for 42 points, tying David Son (1991) for the most points in a season at BSU.
Murtagh is one goal shy of Son's record of 18 set in 1991.
Framingham State took a 1-0 lead just 38 seconds into the game, but the Bears – who have set a program record for wins – held a 3-1 lead by halftime.
Andrew Chenard of Kingston tied it in the 18th minute from Murtagh, who gave the Bears the lead for good in the 24th minute and scored again in the 41st minute.
BSU junior goaltender Colin Jepson made seven saves and earned his program-record 17th win of the season.