Courtesy Framingham State Sports Information

Framingham, Mass. – The 2011 Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) men’s soccer Regular Season and Tournament Champion Framingham State University Rams will make the program’s third appearance in the NCAA Division III Championship this week as the Rams received the MASCAC’s automatic bid after winning the conference tournament on Saturday.   

The Rams, who are making their first NCAA appearance since 2008 when they were eliminated by Middlebury College on penalty kicks, will travel to Montclair State where the Red Hawks will host two first round matches on Saturday and a second round match on Sunday. 

Framingham State (8-8-3) will face the host Red Hawks (15-3-3) who earned an at-large bid after being defeated in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) championship game by Rutgers University-Camden in one match on Saturday, while Dickinson (10-4-5) and Vassar (11-5-3) will meet at Montclair in the other first round match with the two winners meeting on Sunday.  Game times for Saturday will be announced later in the week.

The Rams are led this season by sophomore midfielder Ronaldo Vieira (Framingham, Mass.), who is second in the MASCAC in scoring with 11 goals and two assists on the year for 24 points.  Freshman midfielder Bryan DaSilva (Milford, Mass.), who was selected the MASCAC Tournament’s Most Valuable Player and is the reigning MASCAC Player of the Week, is second on the team in scoring with four goals and five assists for 13 points.  Right behind DaSilva are sophomore Romulo Carvalho (Milford, Mass.) with 12 points (four goals-four assists) and freshman Cory Cardeiro (Fall River, Mass.) with 11 points (four goals-three assists). 

Senior back Peter Maranto (Haverhill, Mass.), junior Luis Gomes (Milford, Mass.) and freshman Matt Carvalho (Chicopee, Mass.) are anchoring the Rams defense that is allowing only 1.79 goals per game on the year.  Junior Sam Yoder (Southbridge, Mass.) has seen the majority of action in net this year for the Rams with a 7-6-3 record, 1.62 goals against average and a .823 save percentage.