EAST BOSTON, Mass. – The No. 5 Roger Williams University Men's Soccer team will be on the road Saturday afternoon, when they face No. 2 Suffolk for the Conference of New England (CNE) Championship at James A. Sartori Stadium at East Boston Memorial Park.
 
The Hawks lead the all-time series, 4-0-2, while also picking up the win in the conference tournament matchup, a 2-1 victory in the 2022 conference title game. Suffolk is led by Bill Maddock, who is in his fifth season leading the Rams, with a 38-26-15 (.576) record. James Greenslit is in his 10^th season as head coach with the Hawks, holding a 91-61-32 (.582) record leading RWU.
 
The Rams went 10-6-4, with a 6-1-2 record in CNE play during the regular season, earning the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament. Suffolk defeated Western New England, 1-0, in their semifinal, as Edward Abouzeid scored the lone goal in the second half, with Nathan Harlow posting a 10 save shutout in goal.
 
For Roger Williams, the Hawks' have had to win a pair of road contests during their CNE Tournament run, defeating No. 4 Hartford, 3-0, behind a pair of goal and assist from Tyler Jastrab (Townsend, Mass.), as well as a goal by Liam Blaisdell (Plymouth, Mass.) and Louis Hawkins (Norwich, Conn.). In the Hawks semifinal win over No. 1 Endicott, Roger Williams trailed 2-1, but a key goal by Dylan Robbins (Johnston, R.I.) with 4:08 remaining in regulation, knotted things up, before an eventual game winner by Dylan Thomas (Norwalk, Conn.) ended the match, 2:23 into extra time.
 
The goalkeepers are projected to be Suffolk's Harlow and RWU's Hogan Cain. Harlow has appeared in 17 games with 16 starts for Suffolk, going 9-4-4 on the year, with seven shutouts. Harlow has a goals against average of 0.89, with a .824 save percentage. Cain has been the backstop for the RWU defense, starting 20 games in net, with an 11-7-2 record allowing 1.16 goals against, and 51 saves on the season with a .689 save percentage.
 
Four rams have double digit points on the season including leading goal scorer Fracisco Valck (7g). Luke Blawn has scored 13 points (5g-3a), with Diego Pierantozzi (3g-4a) and Damon Smargo (4g-2a) have scored 10 points each.
 
For the Hawks, they will look to Jastrab for production, after leading the team with 21 points (7g-7a) this season. Blaisdell ranks second on the team with 15 points (6g-3a) and John Fogarty (Scituate, Mass.) sits third with 12 points (4g-4a). The Hawks will also see key contributions from Jason Salley (Durham, Conn.) and Andre Caceres (Ossining, N.Y.) in the back line, alongside Jack Wildermann (Madison, Conn.) in the midfield.
 
The winner will advance to the NCAA Tournament, securing the CNE's automatic qualifying bid for the tournament.