Author Archives: Soccer America

MEN’S NEWS … It was a big week for the da Luz family at Wake Forest. On Thursday, Coach Tony da Luz earned his 200th coaching win in the Demon Deacon women’s 2-0 victory at N.C. State. On Saturday, son Austin da Luz, contributed on all four Wake Forest goals, scoring one and assisting on the other three, in a 4-1 win for the Wake men at N.C. State.

Austin da Luz set up goals by Zack Schilawski, Andy Lubahn and Ike Opara. The senior leads the ACC with 11 assists and holds the Wake career mark with 35 assists.

This week’s Top 25

* GOLDEN MOMENT. After seven ties, St. John’s finally won a game in overtime, getting a goal from Brazilian Tadeu Terra in the 99th minute to beat Louisville, 3-2. Sverre Wegge Gundhus and Pablo Punyed also scored for St. John’s, which went into the game with only 10 goals scored (and six goals allowed) in 12 games. The Red Storm (4-2-7) was ranked No. 3 in the Soccer America preseason rankings but has since fallen out of the Top 25.

* PEZZA NIGHT. Senior Mike Pezza has earned a solid reputation as a setup man in his career at Connecticut, but his game-winning goal in the Huskies’ 2-0 win over Pitt on Saturday was only the second goal of his career. And quite a goal it was. Pezza took a pass from freshman Carlos Alvarez, dribbled into the middle of the field, dodging two defenders, and took a shot with his left foot that sailed into the top left corner of the goal after slightly deflecting off a Panther defender. The shutout was the seventh in a row for the Huskies, who are 8-2-3.

MEN’S NEWS … Highlighting a string of Top 25 upsets, Charlie Rugg scored two first-half goals and fellow freshman goalkeeper Justin Luthy made nine saves as visiting Boston College knocked off No. 3 North Carolina, 2-1, before 1,811 fans at Fetzer Field.

It has been a roller-coaster season for the Eagles, who have won three straight after losing three straight. Before that, they won four in a row after opening with two losses in three games.

In other ACC play on Saturday, No. 4 Wake Forest in got a goal and three assists from Austin da Luz in a 4-1 win at No. 12, and Will Bates scored twice in No. 17 Virginia’s 3-1 win over Virginia Tech. The win moved BC into fourth place in the ACC:

* ACC STANDINGS:
Maryland 4-1-1 13 pts
Wake Forest  3-1-1 10 pts
North Carolina 3-2-1 10 pts
Boston College 3-2-0 9 pts
NC State  2-3-1 7 pts
Duke 2-3-0 6 pts
Virginia Tech 2-3-0 6 pts
Virginia 2-3-0 6 pts
Clemson 1-4-0 3 pts

* TOP 25 UPSETS.  Eight other Top 25 teams fell to unranked teams over the weekend included No. 5 UC Santa Barbara, No. 7 Louisville, No. 9 Northwestern, No. 13 California, No 16 Georgetown, No. 22 Notre Dame, No. 23 Indiana and No. 25 UAB.

(Click here for more weekend men’s results.)

* TOP 25 RESULTS:
Sunday, Oct. 18
No. 2 UCLA 2 (Hoffman 33, Alvarado 75) No. 19 Stanford 0.
Cal State Northridge 1 (Pate 78) No. 5 UC Santa Barbara 0.
San Diego State 2 (Reza 78, Sacco 100) No. 13 California 1 (Soares pen. 89) (OT).
No. 15 Ohio State 2 (McAnena 14, Warzycha 49) No. 24 Penn State 1 (Costigiola 59)
No. 23 Indiana 0 Michigan State 1 (Ricondo 103) (OT)

Saturday, Oct. 17
Mid-American: No. 1 Akron 1 (Nanchoff 70) Northern Illinois 0.
ACC: No. 3 North Carolina 1 (Brown 52) Boston College 2 (Rugg 14, 25).
ACC: No. 12 N.C. State 1 (Byrd 61) No. 4 Wake Forest 4 (Schilawski 5, da Luz 39, Lubahn 69, Opara 71).
(Austin da Luz adds three assists to go along with his goal.)
Big East: St. John’s 3 (Punyed 75, Wegge Gundhus 77, Terra 99) No. 7 Louisville 2 (Lipka 45, Rolfe 85) (OT).
Ivy: No. 8 Harvard 1 (Akpan 48) No. 20 Brown 0.
Big Ten: No. 9 Northwestern 1 (Valenta 39) Wisconsin 2 (Waspi 35, Conklin pen. 95) (OT).
Big East: No. 10 Connecticut 2 (Pezza 52, Watson Siriboe 83) Pittsburgh 0.
(Huskies get seventh straight shutout.)
Big East: Syracuse 0 No. 14 South Florida 3 (Boggs 27, Thuriere 76, Sinclair 81).
Big East: Marquette 0 No. 16 Georgetown 1 (Mallace 29).
ACC: Virginia Tech 1 (Dunn 13) No. 17 Virginia 3 (Barlow 43, Bates 57, 82).
Southern: No. 21 Davidson 2 (Reiter 12, Zipin 83) Furman 1 (Vorbe 14).
Big East: No. 22 Notre Dame 0 West Virginia 1 (Silva 48).
Conference USA: Tulsa 5 (Poeschk 2, Gonsalez 12, Neil 15, 66, McInnes 20) No. 25 UAB 1 (Sodade 59).

WOMEN’S NEWS … No. 5 South Carolina lost for the first time in 15 games this season when it fell at No. 24 Georgia, 2-1, on a pair of Carrie Patterson goals.

The Gamecocks led on Kayla Grimsley‘s team-leading eighth goal of the season in the eighth minute, but they couldn’t hold the lead in chilly Athens. “It’s a learning experience for us,” South Carolina coach Shelley Smith said. “The good thing is we’ve played so well that we haven’t been put in this position all year.

South Carolina’s loss leaves only two unbeaten teams:

— No. 1 Stanford got two goals apiece from Kelley O’Hara and Christen Press in a quarter of an hour to beat No. 9 USC, 4-0, and improve to 14-0-0. (O’Hara and Press have combined for 31 of the Cardinal’s 52 goals.)

— Dayton (9-0-5) had its game at St. Bonaventure cancelled because of snow.

* LEROUX-MORGAN REUNION. In the only other game involving Top 25 teams. No. 4 UCLA edged No. 17 California, 1-0, on Sydney Leroux‘s late goal. Leroux had better luck than Alex Morgan, her frontline partner on the 2008 U.S. Under-20 World Cup championship team, did for Cal. In the first half, Morgan hit the left post, and in the second half she rounded UCLA keeper UCLA keeper Chante Sandiford on a breakaway but hit the right post.

* PANTHER RECORD BREAKERS. Sophomore Sarah Hagen and senior Kate Megna both landed in the Wisconsin-Milwaukee record book after Megna set up Hagen for both goals in the Panthers’ 2-0 win over Detroit. Hagen has scored in a school-record eight straight games — including multiple goals in four straight contest — while Megna has a season-record 13 assists.

(Click here for more Friday’s women’s results.)

* FRIDAY’S TOP 25 RESULTS:
Pac-10: No. 1 Stanford 4 (Press 53, 68, O’Hara 55, 63) No. 9 USC 0.
WCC: Pepperdine 0 No. 2 Portland 6 (Enyeart 15, 41, Kreminski 68, 83, Burk 74, 78).
Pac-10: No. 17 California 0 No. 4 UCLA 1 (Leroux 77).
SEC: No. 24 Georgia 2 (Patterson pen. 52, 67) No. 5 South Carolina 1 (Grimsley 8).
Big East: No. 8 Notre Dame 6 (Knaack 11, 32, Augustin 24, 80, Iantorno 66, 81) Connecticut 1 (Ruutu 67).
Conference USA: Rice 1 (Taylor 52) No. 14 UCF 2 (Whidden 18, Thomas 70)
Big 12: Iowa State 0 No. 16 Texas A&M 1 (Shipley pen. 55).
SEC: No. 20 LSU 0 No. 21 Mississippi 0.
Big East: Cincinnati 0 No. 22 Marquette 1 (Bares 36).
Big Ten: Wisconsin 1 (Lam-Feist 90) No. 23 Ohio State 1 (Cameron 63).
WCC: St. Mary’s 2 (Menzhuber 16, Tognetti 75) No. 25 San Diego 1 (Magracia 46).