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Friday, November 1, 2002
FIU Men's Soccer continues
unbeaten streak with 5-3 win over pesky Adelphi
 n a match delayed two hours by heavy
rains and lightning around University Park, the FIU men's soccer
team (9-4-1, 3-0-1 ASC) stretched its unbeaten streak to 10,
with a 5-3 Atlantic Soccer Conference victory over Adelphi (4-10-1,
2-1-1), late Friday.
The current streak is the longest
since 1991 when FIU went undefeated in 18 straight matches en
route to a final 17-3-3 mark.
The Golden Panthers win sets
up a winner-take-all meeting with No. 24-ranked Hartwick (9-5-2,
4-0-0), Sunday at one o'clock at FIU for the league's automatic
NCAA Tournament berth in the ASC finale for both squads.
Friday against Adelphi, FIU outshot
the Panthers 14-4 in the opening half, yet led only 3-2 before
Oscar Gil scored his fifth goal of the season on a header
off a corner kick by Jared Rose with 27 seconds remaining
before the break.
With an eye toward the Hartwick
battle, head coach Karl Kremser cleared his bench in the
second half in an attempt to rest his starters. But when Jorrell
Best's goal brought Adelphi to within 4-3 in the 76th minute,
Kremser's strategy quickly changed as nearly the entire starting
unit reentered the contest.
And the substitutions worked
as John Pulido responded in the 79th minute with his second
goal of the evening, off a crossing pass by Alvaro Aservi,
for the final margin of victory.
FIU couldn't shake the pesky
Panthers in the first half. FIU's Adam Wilson scored from
point-blank range just 2:37 into the match but Adelphi tied the
score at 1 when Haruto Imamura capitalized on a deflection
off FIU goalkeeper Roy Rosenberg.
Pulido and Lucas Scudeler
each tallied goals for FIU midway through the first half for
a 3-1 advantage until Tal Sheinfeld's unassisted goal
against an out-of-position Rosenberg tightened the game to 3-2
in the 41st minute of play.
"I was pleased with the
way the entire team performed tonight and I would have left the
second team in longer if not for a couple of nightmarish goals
in the first half," said Kremser. "We were able to
rest a lot of our players in the second half and I'm happy with
the depth on this team, but we had to secure a 4-3 score, so
I brought back a lot of the starters."
Overall, FIU outshot Adelphi
24-11, forcing Panthers goalkeeper Igor Yatsenko to make
eight saves, while Rosenberg recorded only two.
Sunday's game will be broadcast
on Radiate 88, FIU's student radio station. The game can be heard
on 88.1 FM in Miami or on the Internet at http://wrgp.fiu.edu/sports. |