FRANKLIN, Mass. -- The Pentagon said a Franklin soldier killed in Iraq died of wounds from small arms fire in Diyala province.

Army Staff Sergeant Robert Pirelli died Wednesday.

The 29-year-old Green Beret was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group, based in Fort Carson, Colorado. He had been due to come home in two months.

The MetroWest Daily News reported that Pirelli played right wing for the Franklin High School hockey team before he graduated in 1996. He was one of two senior hockey players to win a booster club scholarship and later graduated with a criminal justice degree from Northeastern University.

Teammate Matthew Wheeler, who won the other scholarship, told the newspaper Pirelli was a hard-working and unselfish player who never gave up.

Pirelli is the second Franklin soldier to die in Iraq.