University of Connecticut Athletics
Men's Soccer Drops Game, 2-1, to Louisville
9/18/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (September 18, 2005) – The fifth-ranked University of Connecticut men’s soccer team dropped its second straight game, falling 2-1 to BIG EAST newcomer Louisville Sunday afternoon at Cardinal Park. With the loss, the Huskies fall to 4-2-0 overall and 0-2-0 on the conference slate, while Louisville improves to 3-3-1 and 1-1-1.
Dori Arad (Hahotrim, Israel) played a career-high 49 minutes, scoring one goal and putting forth a strong performance on the attack to lead the Huskies. Arad swapped minutes with Kevin Burns (Greenfield, Ind.), who had played every minute of the previous five contests for UConn, and Moshe Shalchon (Rishon Lezioh, Israel).
Scoring begin midway through the first half when Stanley Ford (Liverpool, N.Y.) took the ball to the endline before sending a pass to the top of the box for the waiting Arad, who entered the game less than a minute earlier. The freshman midfielder fired the ball into the left side of the goal behind the reaching of the diving Cardinal keeper, Charlie Edwards, at the 24:42 mark.
The Cardinals were not deterred, as they converted on a sloppy back pass by the Husky defense to tie up the contest just 1:04 later. Louisville’s Matt Pranger picked off UConn’s pass in the penalty box before passing it to Joe Belfour who poked the ball into the open net.
Arad pushed hard for the remainder of the half, feeding two close attempts to Willis Forko (Houston, Texas) and Ford. Forko over-stepped the ball inside the penalty box in the 40th minute to receive an offsides call and about five minutes later, Ford took a shot that went wide left as the period wound down. Despite the close attempts, the two squads headed into halftime with a 1-1 tie.
The Cardinals came out threatening in the second half, posting the first of many near scoring opportunities. David Guzman sent a chip shot high left at the 49:17 mark before Arad once again stepped up in attempt to give the Huskies the lead with well-placed free and corner kicks that were unable to be converted into tallies. A flurry of offensive activity ensued early in the 81st minute with the Huskies battling it out in the shallows of the penalty box with little result.
The 61-minute scoring dry spell ended at 86:41 when Frank Jonke sent a backwards bicycle kick into the UConn goal to go up 2-1. Even with the movement of all 10 field players to the offensive end of the field, the Huskies were unable to tie up of the contest in the final minutes and UConn fell 2-1 for their second consecutive loss.
The Connecticut men’s soccer team returns to action Friday, Sept. 23 with an 8:00 p.m. contest against conference rival St. John’s in Storrs. The game, which will be televised on Fox Soccer Channel, is expected to draw a capacity crowd of nearly 6,000 fans.
