Author Archives: Paul Kennedy

MEN’S NEWS … What a difference a year makes! Last year at this time, no WCC men’s team had a record above .500. This year, every WCC team has a record above .500 except Santa Clara, which is 2-2-0.

The biggest win to date came Sunday night when Loyola Marymount upset unbeaten UC Santa Barbara, 2-1, on the road for Coach Paul Krumpe‘s 100 career win. Rafael Baca and Phil Da Silva spotted LMU to a 2-0 lead and redshirt freshman Max Young shut out the Gauchos for the first 86 minutes.

WCC RECORDS
Loyola Marymount (3-1-0)
San Diego (3-1-0)
St. Mary’s (2-0-2)
Gonzaga (3-1-2)
San Francisco (2-1-0)
Portland (2-1-1)
Santa Clara (2-2-0)

* DEMON EXPLOSION. DePaul scored 13 goals in 20 games last season but had eight in two games over the weekend. The Blue Demons upset previously unbeaten UC Irvine, 3-2, on Friday and cruised to a 5-1 victory over Buffalo two days later to claim the championship of the Marquette Invitational.

The wins gave DePaul three in a row for the week, and in all three games Soccer America Player of the Week Steffen Vroom opened the scoring. “It’s great when he scores because it relaxes everybody,” said teammate Mark Plotkin. “It gives us the confidence to score even more goals.”

* TUESDAY TOP 25 ACTION:
No. 7 Maryland vs. Duquesne
No. 22 N.C. State vs. Campbell
No. 25 Virginia vs. Mount St. Mary’s

This week’s Soccer America Men’s Top 25

MEN’S NEWS … The ACC season opened with two glamor showdowns, and a pair of freshmen played huge roles in the outcomes.

Enzo Martinez, the Uruguayan-born South Carolina prep legend, was the instigator in No. 2 North Carolina’s 2-1 comeback win over previously unbeaten N.C. State before 4,200 fans in Chapel Hill.

James Belshaw, who was developed in English pro club Walsall’s youth system and even suited up for a League One (third division) game against Carlisle last season, came up big in goal for Duke, helping the No. 20 Blue Devils edge No. 21 Virginia, 1-0, in overtime before 4,692 fans in Charlottesville.

Martinez, better known for his scoring (182 goals at Rock Hill Northwestern High School) than playmaking, was fouled for the penalty kick Zach Loyd converted (twice) and fed Michael Farfan on the winning goal. The Cal State Fullerton transfer took possession outside the box, beat a defender at the edge of the area, then blasted a shot that ricocheted off the right post for the goal.

Virginia had the edge in regulation, but the 6-foot-2 Belshaw was a dominating force in goal. The Blue Devils won on Daniel Tweed-Kent’s goal following a flurry of shots in the second overtime.

“We had an excellent game plan,” Duke coach John Kerr said. “We did our homework on Virginia and some of their weapons were not necessarily nullified, but less of a threat. We were fortunate a couple of times that they missed some opportunities, but we dug our heels in and worked together and found a way to win the game.”

* THIS WEEK’S TOP 25. Akron and North Carolina remained 1-2 in the Soccer America Men’s Top 25. Wake Forest, Creighton and Dartmouth each moved up one spot to complete the top five. Five teams moved into the Top 25 for the first time this season: No. 12 Harvard, No. 16 Monmouth, No. 17 Butler, No. 18 Loyola Marymount and No. 25 Kentucky.

* TOP 25 RESULTS:
Friday, Sept. 11
No. 6 Dartmouth 0 No. 18 Connecticut 0.
No. 21 Virginia 0 No. 20 Duke 1 (Tweed-Kent 101) (OT).
(ACC opener for both teams attracts crowd of 4,692 at Klockner Stadium.)

Saturday, Sept. 12
No. 2 North Carolina 2 (Loyd 33, Farfan 65) No. 19 N.C. State 1 (Sanchez 2).

Weekend Scoreboard

* RECORD BOOK. Senior Alan McGreal became Canisius’ all-time leading scorer with 77 points when he scored in the Griffs’ 1-1 tie with Cornell in front of 1,206 fans at the Demske Sports Complex on Friday

MEN’S NEWS … Sophomore Stephen Knox‘s first goal of the season gave Boston University a 1-0 win over No. 3 St. John’s on Sunday night at Nickerson Field.

No. 1 Akron and No. 4 Wake Forest rolled on the road on Sunday. Golden goals gave New Mexico a 2-1 win at No. 15 Notre Dame and No. 17 Northwestern a 3-2 victory over Tulsa.

American was the only other Top 25 team to fall to an unranked team, dropping a 3-0 decision to Monmouth.

With UC Santa Barbara trailing Loyola Marymount, 2-0, in the second half, it looks like only three Top 25 teams will complete Week 2 with unbeaten and untied records: No. 1 Akron, No. 12 South Florida and No. 20 Duke (4-0-0).

(Read Monday morning’s Soccer America Daily for the new Soccer America Top 25.)

TOP 25 RESULTS:
Sunday, Sept. 13
Cincinnati 0 No. 1 Akron 3 (own goal 17, Nanchoff 80, Mwila 81).
Boston Univ. 1 (Knox 34) No. 3 St. John’s 0.
Clemson 1 (Thornton 89) No. 4 Wake Forest 3 (Opara 6, Randolph 60, 83).
(Ike Opara scores in last game before joining U.S. U-20s.)
No. 6 Dartmouth 2 (Keat 25, pen. 60) Rhode Island 0.
51st minute: No. 7 UC Santa Barbara 0 Loyola Marymount 2 (Baca 24, Da Silva 34).
Marquette 0 No. 8 UC Irvine 1 (Thompson 57).
No. 11 California 3 (Wiedeman 16, Cosgriff 35, Jimenez 71) Cal Poly 1 (Gray pen. 66).
No. 13 Louisville 1 (Rolfe 50) UIC 1 (Trout 63).
No. 15 Notre Dame 1 (own goal) New Mexico 2 (Davis 38, 92) (OT).
No. 16 Indiana 2 (Bruin 54, Adlard 83) Seattle 0.
No. 17 Northwestern 3 (Bellizzi 23, Eliason pen. 66, 99) Tulsa 2 (Albertson 33, Parada 75) (OT).
No. 18 Connecticut 0 Iona 0.
No. 22 Northern Illinois 1 (De La Cerda 85) Oakland 0.
Monmouth 3 (Clark 1, Kinne 7, Caiella 42) No. 23 American 0.
No. 24 Michigan 3 (Fuzetti 10, Saad 25, Keller 74) Lipscomb 0.
No. 25 South Carolina 1 (Ruthven 45) George Mason 0.

Saturday, Sept. 12
No. 2 North Carolina 2 (Loyd 33, Farfan 65) No. 19 N.C. State 1 (Sanchez 2).

(Read more below for other Sunday results and highlights from around the country.)

MEN’S NEWS … The hottest duo in the men’s ranks is UMBC’s Andrew Bulls and Levi Houapeu.

For the third straight game, Bulls had two goals, while Houapeu added three assists in the Retrievers’ 3-1 win over St. Francis (Pa.) that improved their record to 4-0-0, making them the first Division I men’s team to win four games. Bulls, a sophomore, now has seven goals and four assists in four games. Houapeu, a junior, has four goals and six assists.

Their reputations as scoring threats extend beyond the college game. Bulls’ goal for the Baltimore Bays was named the 2008 Goal of the Year in the first year of the U.S. Soccer Development Academy. Houapeu was named to the all-tournament representing D.C. United this summer at the Super-20 men’s championships.

UMBC’s 4-0-0 start is the program’s best since the 1999 season. It will host Mount St. Mary’s Saturday in the final game of the adidas Kick Off Classic.

* OFF TO EGYPT. Goalie Brian Perk and midfielder Michael Stephens played their last game for UCLA Thursday night before leading off to Cyprus, where the USA will begin preparations Sunday for the Under-20 World Cup beginning later this month in Egypt. Both played 79 minutes before coming out in the Bruins’ 4-0 win over UC Davis.

The Bruins should make do without their seniors thanks to one of the deepest squads to grace Westwood in the program’s long history. That was evident Thursday night as freshmen Chandler Hoffman and Evan Raynr combined for three goals off the bench. Brian Rowe, who did not have to make a save in his 20 minutes of action Thursday, will assume starting goalkeeper duties while Perk is away.

* U-20 COLLEGIANS:
Brian Perk (UCLA)
Aaron Maund (Notre Dame)
Ike Opara (Wake Forest)
Brian Ownby (Virginia)
Dillon Powers (Notre Dame)
Michael Stephens (UCLA)

Thursday’s Scoreboard

* WEEKEND TOP 25 ACTION:
Friday, Sept. 11
No. 6 Dartmouth vs. No. 18 Connecticut (Nike Hypertherm Classic)
No. 21 Virginia vs. No. 20 Duke

Saturday, Sept. 12
No. 2 North Carolina vs. No. 19 N.C. State

MEN’S NEWS …  Denver lost one of the nation’s top sophomores when Sam Garza tore his anterior cruciate ligament and miniscus in the Pioneers’ game against N.C. State on Friday.

The injury means that Garza, the 2008 MPSF Newcomer of the Year , won’t be joining the U.S. under-20 national team in Cyprus Sunday for preparations for the Under-20 World Cup later this month in Egypt. Hertha Berlin midfielder Bryan Arguez has been added to the U.S. U-20 roster.
 
* Akron will put its No. 1 ranking on the line this week when it travels to Cincinnati to face High Point and the host Bearcats at the inaugural adidas Bearcat Classic on Friday and Sunday. Two easy games? Hardly. Both High Point and Cincinnati are 3-0-0.

HPU has only allowed one goal in three games. “We are excited for the fast start,” said Coach Dustin Fonder. “We are really proud of the fact that we had our second shutout in three games. A goal of ours was to tighten up defensively and it looks like we are starting to do that. “

Hylton Dayes‘ Bearcats scored 12 goals in their three wins — one less goal than they scored all last season. They’ve gotten goals from eight different players, led by Branden Stelmak with three goals.

* Clemson continued to struggle as the winless Tigers had to settle for a 1-1 tie at home with Charlotte on Wednesday night.

Wednesday’s Scoreboard

MEN’S NEWS … When you think about summer jobs for a college student, a few come to mind. Camp counselor. Store clerk. Busboy. Lifeguard. But prison guard?

That’s what Kentucky freshman midfielder Matt Lodge did in the summer before leaving his native England to join the Wildcats.

“It was a pretty laid back job, to be honest,” Lodge told Cat Scratches. “I wasn’t dealing with prisoners as much as I could have been. I pretty much just escorted them in and out of their cells, to and from their work places and guarded equipment.”

The prison was a “Cat C” prison — two levels below a maximum-security facility — but a lockdown took place on the day, coincidentally, UK coach Ian Collins was supposed to call Lodge and go over plans for his first season in Lexington.

Collins had discovered Lodge last winter at a trial of English amateur players and already calls the freshman his best player — a huge compliment when you consider the Wildcats feature Soccer America Preseason All-American Barry Rice.

“That is quite a statement about a guy who has been here for a month and a half,” said Collins. “Just the quality he brings every day, the effort level, the intensity, the competitiveness. All of those things are very good and he is just very good.”

Lodge got his first collegiate goal Sunday for the 2-0-0 Wildcats in a 4-1 win over Bowling Green in the finale of the UK Invitational before 1,475 fans.

* THREE-GAME SWEEPS:
Ten teams had 3-0-0 weeks to start the 2009 men’s campaign …Cincinnati (Bearcats are 3-0-0 for the first time since 1999.)

College of Charleston (Senior John Bello had the game-winners against Coastal Carolina and Old Dominion)
Duke (Blue Devils debuted this week in the Soccer America Top 25 at No. 20)
Gardner-Webb (Redshirt-senior Gerard Hefferon was the Soccer For A Classic MVP)
High Point (Brothers Karo and Fejiro Okiomah have three of the Panthers’ four goals)
Iona (Senior Gustavo Destasio scored game-winning goals against Georgia Southern and North Florida)
N.C. State (Wolfpack gets an early ACC test at No. 2 North Carolina on Saturday)
UC Irvine (Sophomore keeper Andrew Fontein has 0.97 GAA, second lowest in school history)
UC Santa Barbara (David Walker matched ’08 season total with three goals at West Virginia Nike Classic)
UMBC (Sophomore Andrew Bulls had five goals and four assists in the three wins)

Tuesday’s results

* HAT TRICK HERO:
— Senior Andy Stadler registered his first career hat trick to lead George Washington to a 7-1 victory over the District of Columbia.

MEN’S NEWS … Heading into the 2009 season, Akron had several question marks. Who would replace Hermann Trophy winner Steve Zakuani, who left after his sophomore season and signed with MLS’s Seattle Sounders FC? And who would replace four-year starter Evan Bush in goal?

After the opening weekend of play, it looked like the Zips have found a replacement for Bush but finding a goalscorer to replace Zakuani will be a bit harder.

Freshman goalkeeper David Meves earned a pair of shutouts as Akron beat SMU and Tulsa by 1-0 scores to sweep the to the Radisson Tulsa Airport Classic and move into the top spot in the Soccer America Men’s Top 25.

For the time being, Akron will get its goals by committee. The Zips hit the post twice against SMU and needed a penalty kick from Blair Gavin to win on Friday. Another midfielder, Anthony Ampaipitakwong, had the goal against Tulsa.

* It was not a great week for the three ACC teams ranked in the Preseason Top 25. North Carolina had to settle for a 1-1 tie with Northern Illinois and fell to No. 2 behind Akron in this week’s rankings. Defending national champion Maryland lost to UCLA, 2-0, in its opener, while 2007 champion Wake Forest managed only four goals (one an own goal) in three games and went 2-0-1. But before you write off the ACC …

— Virginia put a horrible preseason behind it and beat Portland, 3-0, and Washington, 2-1, at the Portland Nike Invitational. Sophomore Tony Tchani, back after missing the last part of the 2008 season with a knee injury, set the tone with two goals in the first 15 minutes in the opener against Portland.

— Duke and N.C. State both won two games at the Duke/Nike Classic to move to 3-0-0. Denver, the defending MPSF champion, arrived in Durham with a No. 25 ranking, but N.C. State blew the Pioneers away, 4-0, and Duke won, 2-0, two days later.

*TOP 25 ACTION:
Sunday, Sept. 6
No. 22 Tulsa 0 No. 2 Akron 1 (Ampaipitakwong 10)
No. 3 St. John’s 2 (Wegge Gundhus 68, Becerra 90) No. 10 Notre Dame 0.
No. 4 Indiana 1 (Alexander 52) No. 5 Wake Forest 2 (own goal 13, Randolph 72)
No. 8 Maryland 2 (Herrick 5, 96) No. 7 California 1 (Salciccia 78) (OT).

Saturday, Sept. 5
No. 6 Creighton 1 (Sinovic 81) No. 20 Cal Poly 0.
No. 13 Connecticut 0 No. 24 Boston Univ. 3 (Berube 30, O’Neal 86, 90)

Friday, Sept. 4
No. 4 Indiana 0 No. 3 St. John’s 0.
No. 5 Wake Forest 1 (Norman 13) No. 10 Notre Dame 1 (Thomas pen. 77).
No. 8 Maryland 0 No. 9 UCLA 2 (Alvarado 77, Hollingshead 83).

This weekend’s Top 25 results and goal scorers

* CROWD COUNT:
— Maryland drew a record crowd of 6,718 fans at Ludwig Field on Friday night for its game against UCLA. The game had a festive atmosphere. Students wore commemorative red and black scarves to celebrate last year’s NCAA title, and the Terrapin players raced through the goal Coach Sasho Cirovski paid $10,000 and shipped from Pizza Hut Park, where they beat North Carolina in the ’08 final. The Terps have the goal from their 2005 national championship in another corner of the field.

— In a game that started Friday night and ended early Saturday morning, Bradley drew a record crowd of 2,612 for its 1-1 tie with Memphis on Fox Soccer Channel. The Busey Bank Kickoff Festival included a promotion that allowed Peoria fans to pick up a coupon for one free ticket at 19 locations.

— Other big men’s crowds included 3,920 for the first day of the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic, 3,495 for Boston University’s 3-0 win at Connecticut and 2,938 for UC Santa Barbara’s 2-0 win at West Virginia.