MORNING BRIEFING: Wake Forest runs wild
- by Paul Kennedy @pkedit, Sep 29, 2008
This year, the Demon Deacons are 8-0-0 after beating Maryland, 4-2, Friday night in front of a Ludwig Field record crowd of 6,500.
Wake twice came back from one-goal deficits in the first half on goals by Marcus Tracy and Ike Opara, and it broke the game open with goal from Zack Schilawski and Austin da Luz in the first 15 minutes of the second half.
Goalie Akira Fitzgerald made a career-high five saves.
CARDINALS RULE. Under third-year coach Ken Lolla, Louisville continued its rise in the Soccer America Top 25 with a miracle comeback against Notre Dame on Sunday afternoon at Cardinal Park.
Louisville's Austin Berry headed home the game winner in the 95th minute to lift the Cardinals past then-No. 4 Notre Dame, 2-1, in Big East action. Overtime followed Aaron Clapham's penalty kick in the final minute of regulation.
The result snapped Notre Dame's seven-game unbeaten streak.
"I am extremely proud of our guys because they never gave up," said Lolla. "We gave up a soft goal early in the second period and they never hung their heads or gave up. We earned a penalty kick and it was a good goal by Aaron Clapham. I think Austin was determined to make up for the goal he gave up and he did just that with the game-winner."
Bright Dike scored the lone goal for the Irish.
"I thought we opened the game well," said Bobby Clark, "but I didn't feel it was one of our better games."
HURRICANE FELLS SMU. Tulsa came up a goal to SMU in the third minute, but that did not deter the visiting Golden Hurricane, who dominated the remaining 87 minutes, scoring four goals, two in each half, for a 4-1 win.
"We had great practice all week long, and the guys did what we had talked about," Tulsa coach Tom McIntosh said. "We had good movement, and good one-on-one defense. We gave away an early goal, but we combined well and took advantage of our chances for the win. This was a great start to conference play, but we have a long way to go and we have to keep getting better."
Justin Chavez, Jeovahnni Sandez, Kyle Corrie and Zach Nulisch scored for Tulsa.
GAUCHO TURNAROUND. Last week, UC Santa Barbara lost to Wake Forest, 6-2, in a performance that Coach Tim Vom Steeg his players were "not playing at a level high enough to beat anybody." On Saturday, UCSB recovered to win, 2-1, at Indiana.
Vom Steeg called the victory a "huge, huge win" as UCSB was paced by
goals from Alfonso Motagalvan and Chris Pontius (fourth goal in three games) and a sterling game in goal by Kristopher Minton (only second start of the season).
SACRED HEART SHOCKER. The biggest upset of the weekend came at Sacred Heart, where the Pioneers downed Dartmouth, 1-0, on Jason Tessitore's goal.
