KEENE, N.H. - Senior midfielder Kadin Talho (Waterbury, Conn.) had two goals and an assist to lead the visiting Western Connecticut State University Wolves to a 3-1 victory over the Keene State College Owls in the semifinal round of the Little East Conference (LEC) Men's Soccer Championship Tournament this evening on Dr. Ron Butcher Field.  No. 3-seeded WestConn improves to 14-4-3 with its third victory in a row and advances to the Little East Championship Finals on Saturday at noon at top-seeded University of Massachusetts-Boston.  No. 2-seeded Keene State closes its season with a 9-6-2 record.  WestConn will be playing in its third Little East Finals in a row and its second-straight against UMass-Boston, which prevailed on pk's in last year's championship game.

The WestConn offense came out firing, forcing Keene State goalie Regan Racicot to make his only three saves in the opening 3:09 and finally scoring the first goal of the game on a Talho penalty kick 5:30 into the contest.  Declan Coughlin returned the favor in the 20th minute, tying the score 1-1 on an Owl penalty kick.  The Wolves got off several shots over the latter half of the first half, including bids by senior Franz Muhaj (Bridgeport, Conn.) and sophomore Ian Mounts (Middletown, Conn.) that were saved by Owl defenders. 

WestConn took the momentum back from the home team early in the second stanza thanks to Talho's second marker of the game in the 55th minute and a third Wolves goal by rookie Jeffrey Norales (Bronx, N.Y.) who converted on a feed by Talho just 2:04 later.  The WestConn defense was stout the rest of the way, yielding just five Owls shots that were all of the mark.  The Wolves outshot the Owls, 18-11, and had nine corner kicks to just one for Keene State.  WestConn sophomore goalkeeper Zachary Benson (Milford, Conn.) improved to 10-3-2 without needing to make a save.