TAMPA - The University of South Florida men's soccer team knew coming into tonight's regular season opener against UCF, that it would have to battle for every inch of turf at the USF Soccer Stadium. Granted the Bulls have dominated the all-time series against the Golden Knights, boasting a 20-3-4 series lead in the previous 27 meetings, but they knew that their competition from the East on Interstate-4 would be no push over.
And a battle is exactly what USF got, as the Bulls, ranked No. 11 in the preseason National Soccer Coaches Association Top 25, pulled out what can be called nothing short of a "blue-collar" 2-1 win to kick off the 2009 campaign.
The tone of the game was set early with seven fouls - including a yellow card issued to UCF - in the first four-and-a-half minutes of the contest.
Sebastian Thuriere gave USF its first big chance at a scoring opportunity in the 14th minute when he took a laser shot from 35 yards out that went just over the crossbar, with UCF's keeper Shawn Doyle out of the net.
The Bulls would keep up the intensity getting good chances from Javed Mohammed early in the 17th minute, and from Jorge Mora - from the close right wing - that went just wide.
Thirty seconds later, Mohammed would get a chance to take his second corner kick of the night, and took full advantage delivering a strike to Fernando Gonzalez who would head the ball into the back of the net for his first - and the Bulls - first goal of the season.
It wouldn't take long for USF to get back on the board with one of the nicer goals that you would see. Thuriere would take possession of the ball at midfield and drive down the left side finding Hasani Sinclair. Sinclair, a freshman who was known as one of the top goal scorers in all of high school soccer last year, took the pass from Thuriere and drove into the middle of the goal box where he drew a pair of UCF defenders and freeing up Zak Boggs who was streaking down the right side of the field. Boggs would take the ball and fire it past Doyle, giving the Bulls a 2-0 lead with 15 minutes left in the half, a lead they would eventually take into the halftime intermission.
Both teams came out for the final 45 minutes of action not letting up on the offensive end, however raising the bar the defensively as the game became considerably more physical.
With two yellow cards being issued to the Golden Knights in the first half, both teams would combine for seven cards in the final stanza - five to UCF, including two red cards to Finlay Milne and Benjamin Hunt - allowing the Bulls to play with a two-man advantage for the final 14 minutes and 13 seconds of the contest.
Prior to going two-men down, the Golden Knights would finally get on the board on a goal from Jeff Simmons, in the 75th minute, off an assist from Nik Robson cutting the Bulls' lead to one goal.
UCF, however, could not make a push to tie the game down the stretch due to USF's defense.
In goal for USF, Jeff Attinella recorded eight saves while playing all 90 minutes for his first win of the season.
On the night, each team posted 15 shots, with the Golden Knights holding a slight advantage in shots on goal, 9-7.
The Bulls will now hit the road for the first time during the regular season when it travels to Fort Myers on Sept. 5 to face Florida Gulf Coast University at 7 p.m. USF returns home on Sept. 8 at 7:30 p.m. to battle Valparaiso.
Season tickets for USF men's soccer games are $40 for adults and $20 for youths and senior citizens. Adult individual match tickets are $6, while youth and senior citizen admission is $3. All groups of 10 or more can purchase tickets for $2.50 per ticket. All USF students will be admitted at no cost when they display their student ID.
