ST. LOUIS – Saint Louis freshman
CJ Coppola scored the only goal of the match in the fifth minute as No. 21 and top-seeded Saint Louis defeated eight seed Massachusetts 1-0 Friday in a quarterfinal round matchup of the Atlantic 10 Conference Men's Soccer Championship.
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The Billikens (11-4-1) have now won six in a row and advances to host No. 6 Dayton Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Hermann Stadium in an A-10 semifinal. The Flyers upended No. 3 VCU with a late goal on Friday. UMass' season ends with a 7-4-7 record.
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Coppola's game-winner, his fifth goal of the year, came off an assist from
John Klein. After receiving a pass from
Lane Warrington, Klein lofted a ball into the box that Coppola headed home for the game's only score. It was Klein's fifth assist of the season, which adds to his team-leading point total of 19 points (7G, 5A). Additionally, it was Klein's 27th career assist, which is tied for ninth all-time in school history.
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The game was played in a strong wind, which favored SLU in the first half. UMass had the wind in the second half and the Billikens fought off several chances to keep a clean sheet.
Carlos Tofern made four saves for his fourth shutout of the season.
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