Waltham, Mass. – The Bentley men's soccer team will take on Franklin Pierce in the quarterfinals of the Northeast-10 Men's Soccer Championship on Saturday at 5:00 pm up in Rindge, N.H.

The game can be seen live on NE10 Now: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/bentley/

Bentley comes in as the No. 7 seed after they went 6-6 in the NE10 regular season for 18 points. Franklin Pierce is the No. 2 seed after they went 10-2 in the NE10 for 30 points, just one point behind the regular season champions Adelphi.

One of those two defeats FPU suffered in NE10 play was at the hands of Bentley by a 2-1 score. The two teams met in Waltham on Oct. 19 and the Falcons emerged as 2-1 winners. Senior Matt Tidona (Bellmore, N.Y./Friends Academy) got them off to a strong start with a goal in just the 13^th minute. The game stayed 1-0 deep into the second half, until senior Julian Stewart (Acton, Mass./Acton-Boxboro) scored the 6^th of his eight goals on the season in the 80^th minute.

Franklin Pierce's Niklas Laudahn scored a late goal in the 90^th minute, but Bentley secured the 2-1 victory. Falcons keeper Nick Maldarella (Saint James, N.Y./St. John's) made six saves to earn the win.

This will be Bentley's 9^th trip to the NE10 playoffs since head coach Gary Crompton took over in 2008. Saturday's game will also be just the third all-time meeting between the two schools in the postseason. The first game was in the 2010 finals, which Bentley reached as the No. 3 seed, but they were defeated in the finals by FPU, which was ranked No. 1 nationally at the time.

Bentley last reached the finals of this tournament in 2017, a tremendous run as the No. 8 seed that saw them defeat the top seed Adelphi and the No. 4 seed Le Moyne to reach the finals.

The second postseason meeting between these two programs was in the 2012 quarterfinals, which FPU won 2-0.

This season, the Bentley-Franklin Pierce matchup is one of four quarterfinal games that will take place on Saturday. The No. 1 seed, Adelphi, will meet the No. 8 seed AIC. The 3-6 matchup sees Southern New Hampshire host Saint Rose, and the 4-5 game is Le Moyne playing host to Assumption.

The four winners on Saturday will advance to the semifinals on Wednesday, and the NE10 Championship match will be on Saturday the 16^th at the highest remaining seed.