Box Score DUDLEY, Mass. – Seniors Pat Gaumond (Holden, Mass.) and Scott Palmerino (Soutbridge, Mass.) each scored first-half goals to propel the No. 3 Nichols College men's soccer team to a 3-1 win over No. 6 Endicott College in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Quarterfinal action Saturday afternoon at Vendetti Field.

The win puts the Bison into the semifinals for the fourth-consecutive season and lifts their record to 12-1-5, marking the fifth-consecutive year they have won at least 12 matches. Nichols also improves to 8-9-0 all-time against the Gulls (9-10-0) and will travel to No. 2 Western New England this Wednesday, November 6 at 1 p.m. looking to advance to the CCC Championship for the fourth-consecutive season.

Gaumond – who was named to the CCC First Team earlier in the week – gave the Bison a 1-0 lead in the 23rd minute. Palmerino threaded a pass to Gaumond from just over the midfield line, and Gaumond walked in, cut to the middle in front of a defender, and let go of a shot that found the top middle of the net.

Palmerino doubled the lead with a great individual effort with a shade under 10 minutes remaining in the half. He lofted a shot over sophomore goalkeeper Austin Peluso (Farmington, Conn.)  that struck the bottom of the left post, but collected his rebound and scored into the top right corner. The goal was his team-leading ninth of the season.

Just 3:18 into the second, sophomore Tiago Prazeres (West Hartford, Conn.) extended the Bison lead to 3-0 with a breakaway goal. He broke down the middle of the field and lifted a shot over the keeper, off the crossbar and down into the net for his fourth of 2013.

Endicott got on the board in the 54th minute when junior Abdulla Al khalifa (Riffa, Bahrain) converted a penalty kick. Junior goalkeeper Jeremy Nash (West Springfield, Mass.) guessed right, and the shot beat him inside his left post. The goal was his eighth of the season.

Minutes later, Al khalifa nearly made it a one-goal game when his shot from in close forced Nash to dive to his right to knock the ball away. With 17-and-change remaining in the stanza, Nichols senior Fred Willard (Webster, Mass.) found himself on a partial breakaway but saw his shot directed at the left corner miss wide. Seconds later, freshman Carey Menifee (Stuart, Fla.) stole the ball from a defender and fired a shot that missed the far corner.

"We were able to exploit their back four," said Nichols head coach Chris Traina.  "We came out and did what we needed to do to seal the deal."

Junior Jeremy Nash (West Springfield, Mass.) recorded four saves to earn his 11th win of the season. Peluso, meanwhile, recorded two saves as the Gulls were outshot 14-11. The fouls were 18-15 in favor of the home team.

In the other CCC Semifinal, No. 5 Roger Williams will play at No. 1 Gordon. The Hawks played to a scoreless tie at Salve Regina before advancing on penalty kicks, 3-0, while the Fighting Scots blanked Wentworth 3-0. The Championship match will take place on Saturday, November 9 at the higher seed.

"I'm looking forward to the match," said Traina, when asked about Wednesday's match. "We just have to make sure we are firing on all cylinders. We didn't play our best the first time against them, so hopefully, we will turn that around."