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Puranen Tallies Twice as Rams Take Down Albany, 3-2

Greg Balicki scored the game-winner with 58 seconds remaining in regulation.

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Erkko Puranen
 
Erkko Puranen
  
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Sept. 12, 2008

Box Score 

KINGSTON, R.I. - Rhode Island freshman Erkko Puranen (Visitasarri, Finland) scored twice and sophomore Greg Balicki (Wilbraham, Mass.) netted the game-winning goal with 58 seconds left on the clock as the men's soccer team defeated Albany, 3-2, in heavy rain Friday night at the URI Soccer Complex.

The Rams were aggressive from the get-go, forcing Albany goalkeeper Steward Ceus to make three saves within the first ten minutes of play, but it was the Great Danes that got on the board first when Claudio Dantas set up Shaun Kane's second goal of the season for the 1-0 Albany advantage in the 26th minute.

Puranen went on to even the score at 1-1, beating Ceus on a breakaway for his first collegiate goal at the 43:22 mark. Sophomore Dwayne Williams (Westmoreland, Jamaica) was credited with an assist on the tally.

Nearly 30 minutes later, Puranen netted his second goal of the night (at 70:04), controlling a corner kick from junior Gary Crooks (Falkirk, Scotland) and stuffing a shot past Ceus for the 2-1 lead.

"I'm really happy for Erkko tonight," said head coach John O'Connor. "He has been working really hard and has continued to do a great job with whatever we ask of him, so its nice to see that hard work translate into a couple of goals for him."

After Ceus stopped an 80th-minute shot by senior Kevin Hamill (Easton, Conn.), the Great Danes played the ball up the field and nearly knotted the score when Dantas' shot deflected off the crossbar and bounced out to Gaby Seguin-Gauthier, whose shot sailed over the wide open net to keep the Rams up by one (2-1).

Albany's Erik DiLorenzo and Shaun Kane set up Mikael McNamara's game-tying goal with 1:06 remaining in regulation, but the lead was short-lived as Balicki blasted an unassisted shot to the far post from the corner of the box to earn Rhody the 3-2 victory with 58 seconds left in the game.

"I'm pleased with the way the boys fought back and continued to play hard right up until the end of the match," added O'Connor. "Even with that late goal that tied things up - they remained focused and didn't panic or get too frustrated, which is very encouraging."

Overall, URI held an 11-3 advantage in shots on goal and out-cornered the Great Danes, 9-1.

Junior Chris Pennock (Middlesborough, England) earned the win in net for the Rhode Island, which improves to 2-1-0 on the season, while Ceus took the loss for Albany, which drops to 3-2-0.

The Rams are back in action on Sunday afternoon when they travel to Boston University for a 4:30 p.m. match against the Terriers.