By Jim Fenton
BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The 2022 Bridgewater State University men's soccer season ended in difficult fashion.
The fourth-seeded Bears lost to Worcester State University on the sixth penalty kick in the championship game of the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament.
So when BSU reported for training camp on Aug. 18, there was plenty of motivation.
"The guys were definitely down losing last year," said coach Brendan Adams, "but then you get the players' attention right away when the next season starts.
"Guys have done a very good job in that sense."
The Bears have been superb this fall, going 10-2-5 and winning their first MASCAC regular-season championship since 2014 with a 6-0-1 record.
That has earned BSU the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. The Bears play Friday at 3:30 p.m. at Peter Mazzaferro Field against No. 4 seed Framingham State University. The Rams (11-7-1) advanced with a 3-1 win in overtime over Worcester State State University on Tuesday.
This marks the first time since the MASCAC began its postseason tournament in 2000 that both the BSU men and women are the No. 1 seed together.
The BSU men, who won their fifth regular-season title, will be seeking the conference's automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. The Bears also won the MASCAC regular-season crown in 1994, 2003 (tied with Worcester State), 2009 and 2014.
"I knew we'd have a pretty decent team coming back after losing in the finals," said Adams. "The core of the guys were back and the freshman class really put us over the top. Credit to them for how they handled the transition from high school to college. They've done a really good job."
Leading the BSU offense is senior David Nelson (East Bridgewater, Mass.) with eight goals and four assists for 20 points; freshman Nicholas Ribeiro (Bellingham, Mass.) with five goals and nine assists for 19 points; sophomore Filippo Mucci (Vineyard Haven, Mass.) with six goals and two assists for 14 points; and junior Dominek Borden (New Bedford, Mass.) with three goals and seven assists for 13 points.
Seniors Will Halben (Attleboro, Mass.) and Matthew Garcia (Foxboro, Mass.) have chipped in with three goals apiece.
Nelson is the team's leader in goals and points for a second straight year after tying for the lead in points as a sophomore. He has 27 goals and 14 assists for 68 points.
"He had a good year last year and has turned it on kind of late again, which is nice,'' said Adams of Nelson, who is third in the conference in goals. "He's done very well against the league teams and, hopefully, that kind of continues as we progress. He's matured and he's playing a lot better. I think he sees that, unfortunately, his career is coming to an end and is finishing strong.''
Ribeiro was recently named the MASCAC rookie of the week and is first in the conference in assists.
"He is a very clever player,'' said Adams. "He gives us a little swagger with how he plays. He does a really good job with the ball.''
Mucci was named the MASCAC offensive player of the week on Monday after getting two goals and an assist last week. He's among the conference leads in goals and game-winning goals.
Graduate student Will Russell (Sandwich, Mass.) has a 0.94 goals against average in 16 starts with 10 wins.
Russell transferred from Franklin Pierce following his freshman year and appeared in one game in 2019. He has started all three seasons since then, lowering his GAA each year.
"He's done a great job of waiting for his time and learning from it and stepping in,'' said Adams. "He didn't play at Frank Pierce, then played 15 minutes his sophomore year here. For a lot of people, they'd kind of like hang 'em up and concentrate on school and move on.
"But he's played the last three years for us and he's done a really good job. He gives us consistency in the back and allows guys to play with confidence. He's a very good calming influence for us.''
The defense is keyed by freshman Hector Bucio (Easton, Mass.), sophomore Ryan Healy (Cork, Ireland), juniors Justin Silva (North Attleboro, Mass.) and Jack O'Toole (Wilbraham, Mass.) and senior Jacob Ramos (New Bedford, Mass.).
"Our depth has been good,'' said Adams. "We've had guys out, and other guys have stepped up. We've been very fortunate in that sense."
The Bears need two more wins at home in order to advance to the NCAAs for the seventh time in program history and first since 2018.
"It'll be a new experience for the guys,'' said Adams of being the top seed. "It'll be a little bit of a lesson. We had a couple hiccups during the year and hopefully they've learned from those. This is a whole other thing we'll have to learn from, being the hunted instead of being the hunter.
"Not having to get on the road and travel is nice. You get some home crowd, some students who want to come to the game. That's a good advantage, but the games are always going to be tough because they're playoff games.''