| |
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 |
| Top Performers |
| Player |
|
|
|
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| Syracuse - Nick Roydhouse |
0
|
0
|
3
|
2
|
| USF - Hasani Sinclair |
2
|
0
|
4
|
2
|
|
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TAMPA - The University of South Florida men's soccer team closed out a short two-match homestand tonight looking for its second straight win and to even its BIG EAST Conference record at 1-1. And that's exactly what the Bulls did, and did so in dominating fashion, as they handed Syracuse a 4-0 loss at the USF Soccer Stadium Saturday night.
The Bulls recorded a solid win in their last outing on Wednesday night against Rhode Island, however, were really looking to get back on track in league play after they were handed a loss in their conference opener at Connecticut on Sept. 24.
USF got a true team effort tonight as it got two goals from Hasani Sinclair and a goal apiece from Santi Alexis and Andre Mittoo.
"I'm really pleased with the team, the guys that started and the guys that came off the bench," said USF head coach George Kiefer. "Right now we are training the mentality and the mentality is getting right. As we move further into October, we are starting to understand who we are. I mean you look at Hasani, and yes he scored two goals, but you look at the other things he did is why he got those two goals. We started to look at Andre up top, and he gets a goal, Santi gets a goal, and then to secure the shutout, I think it was from top-to-bottom a very good performance."
Although both teams went back and forth for most of the first half, the Bulls dictated the tempo of the game early on.
USF has numerous opportunities including laser shots on net by Sinclair in the 11th minute and Bernardo Anor in the 15th minute of play.
Sinclair would finally break through and score his first goal of the year in the 19th minute off assists from Marius Krathe and Anor.
The Orange would pose the second of only two threats in the first half, with 10 minutes left before the intermission, when Nick Roydhouse took a free kick and bent it around the USF wall - low from left to right - and attempted to short-hop the ball into the bottom right corner of the goal, only to have it suffocated by the Bulls' All-America goalkeeper Jeff Attinella.
USF would take a 1-0 lead into the break just a few minutes later.
Things would pretty much stay quiet for the majority of the second half until Orange keeper Jeremy Vuolo was issued a red card and sent off for taking down Sinclair in the box in the 77nd minute of play. Sinclair would then calmly step up and burry the ball into the back of the goal past back-up keeper Ryan Jones - who had just stepped onto the field - making the score 2-0.
The Syracuse flood gates would then open as Alexis would record his first career goal five minutes later in the 82nd minute, off a pass from Leston Paul, just two minutes before Mittoo logged his first goal of the season off an Alexis assist.
On the night, the Bulls would out shoot Syracuse 12-4, including a 6-0 mark in the second half, and had a 7-2 shots on goal advantage.
Attinella registered three saves on the night en route to his 23rd career shutout and his sixth of the year.
The Bulls improve to 6-2-1 on the year and 1-1-0 in BIG EAST play while Syracuse is now 1-5-3 and 0-1-1 in BIG EAST play.
The Bulls will now head out on their second and final three-game road stretch of the regular season beginning at Florida Atlantic on Oct. 6. USF will then travel to Villanova on Oct. 9 and DePaul on Oct. 13. The match with Villanova will be played at PPL Park - home of the Philadelphia Union of Major League Soccer - and will be broadcast live in the internet at TopDrawerSoccer.com.
The Bulls will then return home on Oct. 16 when they face West Virginia.
