 Around The Nation |
Men's Soccer Grabs 3-0 Exhibition Victory
Aug. 24, 2008
SPOKANE, Wash. - The old guard stole most of the spotlight Sunday as Gonzaga University's men's soccer team captured a 3-0 exhibition victory over Trinity Western University of Langley, British Columbia, in a match played on Mulligan Field. The match does not count in the record of statistics for the Bulldogs, while the Spartans, three-time defending Western Canada champions, fell to 1-3-0. The Bulldogs, which held an 11-0 first-half shots advantage and a 16-5 game edge, opened a 2-0 halftime lead. Junior forward Tye Perdido, the leading returning scorer from last year's NCAA Tournament team, took a thru ball from junior midfielder Ben Funkhouser and buried a shot to the right corner from 12 yards at 19:42. Junior defender Nick Barclay headed a ball into the corner past TWU keeper Andrew Kowan at 31:46, the play starting on Funkhouser's corner kick, getting tossed around in the box and finding its way from senior midfielder Conor Baranksi to Barclay who punched in a soft header for the goal. Gonzaga capped the scoring at 53:06 when Perdido took a right-to-left cross from Funkhouser and tapped the ball in from 6 yards. The Bulldogs had an excellent chance to take an early lead when Baranski's point-blank shot was stuffed by Kowan and Funkhouser's rebound sailed high in the fourth minute. Redshirt freshman Andrew Hickman played the entire match in goal for the Bulldogs as Whitworth College transfer Scott Barnum is still nursing a shoulder injury. Hickman made three saves, most on harmless shots as the Spartans shot at will in the second half in an effort to generate some offense. The best scoring chance for the Spartans came in the 71st minute when Garrett Traversky's shot from the deep right wing was headed for the far corner and Hickman made a diving stop to his right to deflect the ball past the far post.
Head coach Einar Thorarinsson, entering his 14th year on the Bulldog bench, started two newcomers in freshman defender Mitch Boland from Orange, Calif., and sophomore midfielder transfer Colin Harrison from Boulder, Colo., by way of the University of Portland. Thorarinsson went to his bench to get three other true freshmen, a junior college transfer and a redshirt freshman into the fray. "I saw some things I really liked," Thorarinsson said. "I thought our veterans played well for the most part and generated some things, and the newcomers performed well at times. Our defense really put some pressure on the ball." Gonzaga opens the regular season Friday at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb. |
