Men's Soccer
Men's Soccer Defeated, 1-0, at St. Bonaventure
Oct. 19, 2008
ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. - The Rhode Island men's soccer team dropped a 1-0 decision to St. Bonaventure, Sunday afternoon at McGraw-Jennings Field. The loss was Rhody's first Atlantic 10 defeat while the Bonnies picked up their first conference victory.
"Its a disappointing loss," said head coach John O'Connor. "We definitely had some chances, we just didn't capitalize."
The two teams battled through a scoreless first half with Rhode Island holding a 8-4 shot advantage. The Rams had several scoring chances, however SBU keeper David Flynn made four saves to keep the game scoreless.
The Bonnies got on the board early in the second half when Sam Maheu dribbled in to the top of the box and scored on a shot that deflected in off the crossbar. Flynn went on to stop four more URI shots thru the remainder of regulation, securing the 1-0 win.
For the game, Rhode Island outshot St. Bonaventure, 15-7 and held a 4-2 advantage in corner kicks. Junior Gary Crooks (Falkirk, Scotland) and sophomore Michael Tanke (Niles, Mich.) paced the Rams' offensive attack as each recorded two shots on goal.
"I thought Jonathan Pereira played real well today," O'Connor said of the sophomore reserve who saw 51 minutes of action in place of freshman Erkko Puranen (Visitasaari, Finland) who was serving a one-game suspension after being red-carded at Duquesne on Friday. "Kedan [Crosby] and Dom [Petrarca] were good too, and we did a lot of things right, we just couldn't find the back of the net today."
With the loss, Rhode Island falls to 6-5-1 (2-1-0 Atlantic 10) while St. Bonaventure improves to 3-4-4 (1-2-1 Atlantic 10).
The Rams return to the URI Soccer complex, next weekend, for a pair of games against George Washington (Friday at 7 p.m.) and Richmond (Sunday at 1 p.m.). Fans can watch both games live by logging on to Rhody All-Access.
