University of Connecticut Athletics
Huskies Overcome St. John's in BE Semifinals
11/15/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
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PISCATAWAY, NJ (November 15) – Behind two come-from-behind goals from BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Year Damani Ralph (Kingston, Jamaica), the University of Connecticut men’s soccer team upset No. 2 seed and nationally ranked St. John’s in a semifinal game of the 2002 BIG EAST Championship on Friday evening at Rutgers’ Yurcak Field. The game ended after two overtime periods at a 2-2 tie, giving the Huskies the win 6-5 on penalty kicks. The Huskies improved their record to 15-4 overall, while the Red Storm dropped its first game since opening day falling to 12-2-5.
St. John’s charged up field in the 41st-minute of play to jump out to an early 1-0 lead. UConn keeper Adam Schuerman (Brookfield, WI) was off his line when SJU’s Chris Corcoran took a shot from the left side. Husky defender Andrew McLeod (Kingston, Jamaica) cleared the ball from the goal line from the left post forcing a Red Storm corner kick. Simone Salinno served the corner kick into the box, Rich Bradley headed it to the far post, and Matina Daminani sealed it on another header at the 3:34 mark. UConn had a similar chance in the 32nd-minute on two consecutive corner kicks. On the second attempt, Anthony Curtis (Kingston, Jamaica) sent the corner kick to the far side of the goal, when Shavar Thomas (Kingston, Jamaica) headed the ball and Alberto Duenas cleared the ball from the goal line. At 35:18 Ralph broke past most of the St. John’s defense and was one-on-one with Duenas who forced Ralph to shoot the ball to late, hitting the outside of net.
In the first minutes of the second half, Corcoran took a high shot that went shy of the crossbar into the hands of Schuerman. Then off another corner kick, St. John’s got its second goal of the evening. Salinno again served in the corner kick, and Chris Leidner got a foot on it sending it over to Andre Schmid. With his back to the goal, Schmid back-heeled the ball bouncing in off the inside of the crossbar at the 54:35 mark of the game. UConn began to erase its two-goal deficit at the 69:50 mark of the game on Ralph’s team leading 16th goal of the season. Joe Coyle (Belle Meade, NJ) sent a throw in to Ralph, who took the shot from 22-yards out sailing over the head of St. John’s keeper Bill Gaudette. UConn evened the score with two-minutes left in regulation on another Ralph tally. Thomas sent a cross ball to Marcus Svensson (Kivek, Sweden) who pushed the ball to in front of the net. Ralph tipped the ball to the left of Gaudette for the game-tying goal.
In the first overtime period, both team’s got one shot off, UConn dominated its half of the field. Ralph had a third goal called off when Rui Fernandes (Bridgeport, CT) was called offsides. The second overtime was also played evenly.
Schuerman had five saves through the overtime period, while Gaudette had two stops. An evenly matched game, with a good portion played in the air, St. John’s out shot UConn, 20-14.
After one round of penalty kicks, with one missed by UConn’s Anthony Curtis and SJU’s Chris Corcoran, the penalty kicks moved into the second round. John Carrozza took the first shot of the second round, with Schuerman making the diving save to his left. Michael Mordocco (Dix Hills, NY) made the game-winning shot the left of the keeper. Connecticut won the game winning the penalty kicks, 6-5. St. John’s has taken only one penalty shot this season, the deciding goal by Bradley in the Red Storm’s defeat over UConn on October 25.
Connecticut will face the winner of the Georgetown/Boston College semifinal game on Sunday, November 17 at 12 noon at Rutgers Yurcak Field. UConn will be vying for its fifth conference title.
