Puranen comes through in thrilling overtime victory

09/18/08 - The University of Rhode Island men's soccer team won in overtime against Harvard University last night, 1-0. The Rams were back in action at the URI Soccer Complex looking to redeem themselves after a disappointing 4-0 loss at Boston University last Sunday.

"We came into this game more focused and that was the key," said head coach John O'Connor.

Harvard was denied its shot at a third straight victory as the Rams won a defensive battle in sudden death overtime.

Neither team saw a shot on goal until a Harvard attempt 15 minutes into the contest. URI failed to have a shot on goal until 21 minutes into the first half.

Just 1:42 into overtime, freshman forward Erkko Pruanen got a breakaway chance and came through in the clutch. Coming down the right side he banked in his third goal of the year on the left side of the net. The team ran out to its freshman hero to after improving their record to 3-2 overall.

"[Pruanen] is extremely explosive and the other coaches say that he has a second gear that he only uses when he needs it," explained O'Connor.

Dilon O'Neil of Harvard had an opportunity with an open shot almost midway through the first half. Rams junior defensemen Domenic Petrarca stepped in with the save preventing any chance of a Crimson goal. The ball switched zones back and forth most of the half, and shots were hard to come by. With 13:35 remaining in the first half Harvard's senior captain Michael Fucito sped past all Rhode Island defenders, but shot it just over the cross bar.

Frustration took over Fucito and the rest of the Crimson team as they missed opportunities left and right. For the last five minutes in the first half the Rams seemed to have lost a step on defense and struggled to keep it out of their zone. They did manage one attempt by Harvard sophomore Jonathan Periera as a header missed just wide at the two-minute mark.

Although the Rams had difficulties they managed to prevent a goal and kept the game scoreless at the end of the first half.

URI managed only one shot on goal in the first half and Harvard only had four.

The second half started and the Rams seemed to have a considerably larger amount of intensity than the Crimson. They kept the ball out of their zone for much of the beginning of the second half. The amount of opportunities balanced out in the second half, but capitalization on those chances remained missing. Harvard had several shots on goal in a short span, but junior goalkeeper Chris Pennock shut them down each and every time. URI's next chance did not come until 14:50 left in the second half when Puranen missed an open header wide right.

Controversy arose at the 10-minute mark as Puranen was wrapped around the neck by an opposing player and brought to the ground, but a call failed to come in. Shortly after, a brief confrontation between players arose, and teams seemed to gain a boost of adrenaline afterwards. With 5:30 left Harvard had its best chance up to that point as Andre Akpan had a breakaway attempt but was quickly shutdown by an enormous Pennock save.

Time was winding down in regulation and for the final minute the ball remained in URI territory. With two seconds left before what would be sudden death overtime, Pennock made yet again a huge save on Akpan as he received a pass right in front of the net. The ball went straight into the hands of Pennock and regulation was complete - the game remained a scoreless contest.

Both teams managed only 10 shots combined in regulation, three for the Rams.

The game would go into two, 10-minute sudden death overtime periods. The Rams started the overtime with the ball and would not give Harvard much of a chance. Puranen then scored the winning goal.

Despite being outshot seven to four, the Rams managed to hit the goal that mattered the most.

"I told them we would get a chance and they would just need to capitalize," O'Connor said.

The Rams will take on Brown University in Providence on Saturday.