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Boland's First Career Goal Gives Bulldogs A Victory
Oct. 31, 2008
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Gonzaga University's bid to get back into the West Coast Conference men's soccer race took a giant turn for the better Friday night when the visiting Bulldogs scored a late goal to defeat Santa Clara University 2-1 at Buck Shaw Stadium. Freshman defender Mitch Boland, a native of Villa Park, Calif., returned to his home state and made his first career goal a memorable one, his header at 87:12 breaking a 1-1 tie and giving the Bulldogs the victory. The Bulldogs (6-7-2; 3-4-1) won for just the first time in the last five matches, having just a 1-1 double-overtime tie against Saint Mary's College to show for their four previous WCC contests heading into Friday. Ironically, the last win for the Bulldogs prior to Friday was Oct. 5 when they posted a 2-1 overtime victory over the Broncos (3-8-5, 1-4-3) at Gonzaga Soccer Field. Ben Funkhouser's free kick set up the match winner, Boland's diving header to the left corner beating Broncos keeper Kevin Klasila. The assist was the team-leading fifth of the season for Funkhouser. For awhile it looked like the Broncos were going to make Stephen McCarthy's unorthodox goal at 64:14 stand up for the victory. McCarthy sent a cross from the near side to the top of the box, the ball finding the left corner of the net for his second goal of the season. But Gonzaga got the equalizer at 73:43 when the Hawaiian tandem of Nick Love and Tye Perdido teamed up for the goal. Perdido, from Kula, Hawai'i, fed a through ball to Love, a native of Kaneohe, Hawai'i, who fought his way through the defense and beat Klasila one-on-one to the lower left corner. The goal was the second of the season and the second in as many matches for Love since he returned to action after missing two matches after suffering a broken thumb at the University of San Diego Oct. 10. The assist was the second of the season for Perdido who increased his team-leading points total to 14.
Since losing four straight matches to the Broncos, the Bulldogs have now won four of the last seven in the series, going 4-1-2 in that stretch. SCU still leads the series 10-8-3. SCU held a 14-9 advantage in shots and a 6-5 edge in shots on goal. Gonzaga keeper Scott Barnum had five saves while Klasila was called on for three. There were only 23 fouls in the contest - 13 against the Broncos - and SCU was whistled for four yellow cards and the Bulldogs two. With the victory Gonzaga moved into a tie for third place with Loyola Marymount University with 10 points each. LMU defeated Saint Mary's College 1-0 Friday. Idle University of San Diego leads the WCC with 18 points with the University of San Francisco, a 3-0 winner over the University of Portland Friday, second with 16 points. Gonzaga visits USF Sunday at 2 p.m. |
