Herkimer Men advance to Regional Championship Game with 9-0 over Fulton-Montgomery

Herkimer, NY - Riley Urie (West Glover, VT) scored the first three goals of the game and Shemar Blair (Brampton, Ontario) added one goal and four assists as the Herkimer Generals defeated the Fulton-Montgomery Raiders by a score of 9-0 in a Region IIIB Semifinal Playoff Game on Thursday night at Wehrum Stadium. The win raises the General's record to 15-1 on the year as they advance to the Region IIIB Championship Game on Sunday morning at Tompkins-Cortland Community College in Dryden, NY. 

After Urie's scored three goals in the first 30 minutes of the contest, Shane Hennessy (Yonkers, NY) scored with 10 minutes remaining in the half to Herkimer a 4-0 lead. After assisting on the first four goals of the evening, Blair tallied his goal with 5 seconds left in the first half, on an assist from Gian-Luca Failing (Dowat, Switzerland) to give Herkimer a 5-0 halftime lead.

After a scoreless first 15 minutes of the second half, the Generals tallied three goals in just over 3 minutes to increase their lead to 8-0. Abu Secka (Oslo, Norway) scored the first of those three goals to make 6-0 on an assist from Andre Blanco (Cape Coral, FL) and Kimani Clarke (East Hampton, NY)  scored the seventh goal of the night for Herkimer on a feed from Sena Shintate (Kyoto, Japan). Jaahdel Cyril (Bridgeport, CT) scored the final two goals of the evening for the Generals, on assists from Shintate and Diego Bastone ( Fishkill, NY). Aubrey Lowe (Toronto, Ontario) and Julio Gomes (Bedview, South Africa) spilt the time in goal to give Herkimer their 12th shutout on 16 games on the year. For the season, the Generals have outscored their opponents 93-5. 

Next up for the Generals, who are the #2 seed in the Region III Men's Soccer Playoffs and ranked # 4 in the latest NJCAA Division III National Poll, will be a matchup with the # 3 seeded Cayuga Spartans in the Region IIIB Championship Game. This will be a rematch of Herkimer's 2-1 overtime victory on Sept 29 in Herkimer. The Spartans come into the Championship game with a record of 13-2 on the year.  The winner of Sunday's game will clinch a spot in the 2018 NJCAA Division III National Championships, which will be hosted by Herkimer College from Nov 8-11. Game time for Sunday's Championship Game at TC-3 is 10:00 AM.