WATERVILLE, Maine – Bates College senior midfielder David Shear (Concord, Mass.) scored his second goal of the game two minutes into overtime to lift the Bates College men’s soccer team to a 3-2 come-from-behind win over Colby College on Saturday in New England Small College Athletic Conference action.
Bates (9-3-2, 4-3-2) earned the fifth seed in the NESCAC playoffs and will play a quarterfinal game at No. 4 Amherst College on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. Colby ends its season at 7-7.
After a scoreless opening half, Colby went up 2-0 on goals by Chris MacFadyen (Providence, R.I.) and Bobby Abendroth (Natick, Mass.) about 10 and 11 minutes into the second half. Monty Hankin (Canandaigua, N.Y.) had the assist on the first goal and Logan King (Braintree, Mass.) assisted on the second score.
Bates mounted its comeback in the final 10 minutes of regulation. Shear scored in the 82nd minute to cut the margin in half, and then junior midfielder Ithai Schori (New York, N.Y.) tied the game about two minutes later.
Tufts' loss to Connecticut College on Saturday dashed Bates' hopes for a three-way tie for fourth place among Bates, Tufts and Amherst, in which the Bobcats would win the tiebreaker.
Amherst lost to Williams on Saturday, creating a tie for fourth place with Bates. Although Amherst and Bates tied each other earlier this season, Amherst wins the head-to-head tiebreaker between the two teams by virtue of a better record against the top four teams in the conference -- the result of a win over third-place Middlebury, which gives the Jeffs a 1-2-1 record, while the Bobcats are 0-3-1.
Thus, the Jeffs will play host to the Bobcats Sunday at 12:30 p.m., with the winner advancing to next weekend's semifinals at top-seeded Williams. Other Sunday first-round matchups will be No. 7 Wesleyan at No. 2 Bowdoin, and No. 6 Tufts at No. 3 Middlebury.
Bates 0 2 1 - 3
Colby 0 2 0 - 2
SCORING:
C: Chris MacFadyen (Monty Hankin), 55th minute
C: Bobby Abendroth (Logan King), 56th minute
B: David Shear, 82nd minute
B: Ithai Schori, 84th minute
B: David Shear, 96th minute
Shots: Bates 13, Colby 18.
Corner kicks: Bates 2, Colby 6.
Goalies: Aaron Schleicher (Bates, 5 saves); Josh Kahane (Colby, 7 saves).
