Men's soccer boots past Temple, St. Joe's in weekend showdowns [P]

10/17/06 - With a little assistance from its opponents, the University of Rhode Island men's soccer team flexed its offensive muscles in a pair of conference wins at home over the weekend. The team beat Temple 2-1 Friday with the help from an own goal but didn't need any help from St. Josephs as they crushed them 6-1 on Sunday.Head coach John O'Connor was pleased with the team's play but noted that team team didn't come out fast in either game.

"They had a slow start [Friday]," he said. "I don't think any of us were happy with that. We fell asleep in the first half and we knew that and I think some of that carried over into the next game. We had a slow start [Sunday] as well."

On Friday, the Rams got an early lead when Temple misplayed the ball in its box and scored on themselves four minutes into the game. They were able to make up for the own goal and tie the game 14 minutes later when a Temple forward was able to beat freshman goalkeeper Chris Pennock for the score.

Rhode Island came out like a new team in the second half and controlled the game, out shooting the opponent 8-1 and not allowing a shot on net. In the 73rd minute the Rams' offense finally beat the Temple goalkeeper when midfielder Dawid Badecki took a pass from forward Lukasz Tumicz and put in the lower left corner of the net for the game winner.

"We played well in the second half with much better energy," O'Connor said.

The Rams were more than capable of scoring their own goals against St. Josephs on Sunday, scoring six goals in a game for the second time this season.

O'Connor was happy with how the team played.

"Overall, it was a good performance," he said.

St. Josephs was recently ranked 195 out of 199 NCAA Division I soccer teams, but the Hawks gave URI an early scare by scoring first.

In the eighth minute of the game Pennock got caught at the top of the box after a poor clearance and a St. Josephs player shot the ball from far out into the empty net for the score.

The lead didn't last long as the Rams responded with a goal 19 seconds later. They took the ball aggressively up the field on the ensuing kickoff and scored when forward Jeffrey Gonsalves took the ball into the box and sent a short pass to Badecki who knocked the ball in for the score.

"The team is very confident that they're going to score," O'Connor said about the team's ability to come back. "They don't feel like if they give up an early goal that they can't come back."

In the 20th minute midfielder Geoffrey Cameron scored what would prove to be the game winner when he headed in a ball off a cross from Tumicz. For Tumicz, the assist was his conference leading eighth of the season.

Four minutes later Gonsalves scored his 12th goal of the season on a header off a perfectly executed free kick by midfield Danleigh Borman. He put the game far out of reach for Temple early in the second half with his conference leading 13th goal on a ball he put past the goalie that was setup by a great pass in the box from midfielder Steve Mellen.

With the three goal lead the Rams were able to rest some of their key starters and get some of their reserves playing time.

"The fourth goal kind of sealed it," O'Connor said about Gonsalves' last goal. "Teams like [St. Joesphs] get emotionally invested in games and you could see that their spirit was broken when that goal was scored. It was important for us to get our depth out there and rest some of the players."

Even with many of the offensive starters on the bench the Rams still piled on two more goals in the final 10 minutes of the game.

Forward Joe Spofford came away with the ball in front of the opponent's net and easily beat the goalie for the score. Then, with less than three minutes to play, forward B.J. Kochis sent a short cross to sophomore Kedan Crosby who headed it in for the final score of the game.