W&M, MASON ADVANCE TO SECOND ROUND OF THE NCAA MEN'S SOCCER CHAMPIONSHIP
William and Mary and George Mason posted victories in the first round of the NCAA Men's Soccer Championship on Friday night. The Tribe defeated Big South champ Winthrop 3-1, while the Patriots blanked Ivy League champ Penn, 1-0.
William & Mary 3, Winthrop 1
Boxscore
Williamsburg (11/21/08) - Playing in its first NCAA Championship in six years and its first at home in 16 seasons, the William and Mary men’s soccer team wasted little time getting comfortable on its way to a dominating 3-1 win over Winthrop in the opening round of the 2008 tournament. Junior forward Andrew Hoxie scored 34 seconds into the game and added another as the Tribe found the back of the net three times in the first half to move past the Big South Champion. The College upped its season ledger to 11-6-3 with the victory, while the Eagles fell to 15-6-1.
Hoxie finished with two goals, including the game-winner, and notched his third multi-goal game of the season and the seventh of his career. Sophomore striker Alan Koger, who made his fifth start of the campaign, finished with a goal and an assist, while fellow classmate Nat Baako and junior back Roger Bothe each registered assists as well in the win.
The College came out firing and took a 1-0 lead just 34 seconds into the match on Hoxie’s first goal of the contest. Jun-ior Price Thomas got free down the left side and centered the ball into the penalty area to Baako, who corralled the ball off a deflection from an Eagle defender. The Ghanaian midfielder slide the ball to the center finding a wide-open Hoxie, and the 6-4 forward finished into the left side netting to give the Green and Gold an early 1-0 cushion. The helper moved Baako into a tie for not only the team lead in assist with his sixth, but also the CAA lead.
Hoxie extended the W&M lead to 2-0 in the 10th minute of play. Koger and Hoxie combined along the right sideline, while Koger flipping the ball forward to set a rushing Hoxie free on a breakaway. The Newport News, Va., native car-ried the ball into the penalty area, before finishing under the rushing Winthrop goalkeeper into the right side of the net. It was Hoxie’s 10th goal of the season in just 14 matches, while Koger notched his second assist of the year.
The best Winthrop chances of the opening half came off free kicks. In the 18th minute of play, Michael Luk generated a set piece for the Eagles, drawing a foul 28-yards from goal in the center of the pitch. Matt Lacey hit the free kick chance, but sent a knuckle ball wide of the left post. A minute later, the Eagles were awarded another dangerous free kick opportunity from just outside the top of the 18-yard box left of center. Lacey again took the shot for the Eagles, but slipped on the play and W&M goalkeeper Andrew McAdams was able to make the easy grab.
Four minutes from half, McAdams came up with a big save for the College. Off a free kick in the middle of the field, Lacey hit a ball that was deflected to the left side of the box. Cameron Alksnis got a foot to it, sending a shot toward the left post, but McAdams made the diving stab to push it wide.
The third Tribe goal of the match came less than a minute later. Off a free kick from just inside midfield on the left side, Bothe served a ball into the mixer. Koger got up to flick a header over the top of Winthrop goalkeeper Patrick Mi-trovich and into the back of the net for his eighth marker of the season. The assist was Bothe’s fourth on the year.
The Green and Gold onslaught continued into the early stages of the second half. In the 49th minute, Hoxie quickly took a free kick after earning a foul on the left side and found a streaking Ian Stowe toward goal on the opposite side of the field. Stowe attempted a half volley from just inside the penalty area, but it went just wide of the far post.
Five minutes later, Mitrovich came up with a big stop for the Eagles. Hoxie found Koger along the left side, and the sophomore forward carried the ball into the penalty, beating a pair of defenders with the ball at his feet. He back-heeled a pass to a rushing Baako on the left side of the area and his shot from six yards out was blocked wide on a reflex kick save by Mitrovich. On the ensuing corner kick, Hoxie turned the ball into the center of the six-yard box to a wide-open Koger, but his shot went high of the goal from in close.
Winthrop narrowly missed getting on the board in the 68th minute. Big South Player of the Year Daniel Revivo chested a service from the right side down to the middle of the box, giving Miquel Casajuana a wide-open look on goal from 12 yards out. McAdams made a nice diving save to his left on a shot to the right post by Casajuana to preserve the three-goal W&M lead.
The Eagles finally broke through for what proved to be their only goal of the night at the 76:12 mark. Some nifty moves from Rafael Araujo resulted in the tally as the senior midfield dribbled the ball through the midfield from left to center, before punching it into the right side of the net from just inside the 18-yard box.
Just over a 1:30 later, Winthrop nearly cut the Tribe advantage to a single goal. Alksnis played the ball to Casajuana along the right side, and his shot from distance rang off the left post before McAdams was able to catch the rebound.
The teams finished with 14 shots apiece. Winthrop placing seven on goal compared to the Tribe’s six, while each team recorded three corner kicks. McAdams finished with six saves in goal as the Tribe defense stymied the fourth-ranked offensive team in the country for most of the game. Winthrop entered the game averaging 2.24 goals per game. The sophomore center back tandem of Nick Orozco and Michael DiNuzzo did an impressive job marking the Eagles top scorer Revivo, holding him without a shot. Revivo was the Big South Player of the Year and entered the game in the top 25 nationally in both points and goals per game.
The Tribe advances to the NCAA Second Round and will travel to No. 1 seed and defending NCAA Champion Wake Forest on Tuesday, Nov. 25. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m. at Spry Stadium in Winston-Salem. The Demon Deacons are 18-1-1 on the year and are coming off their first loss of the season to Virginia, 3-2, in the ACC semifinals. Wake Forest leads the all-time series with the Tribe at 3-0, including a 1-0 victory over W&M at the Wake Forest adidas Classic in 2006.
George Mason 1, Penn 0
Boxscore
FAIRFAX, Va. ? Freshman midfielder Eber Martinez’s goal in the 47th minute led George Mason (14-6-2) past Penn (11-3-4) by a final score of 1-0 in a First Round NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer Championship match on Friday evening at George Mason Stadium. The win was George Mason’s first in NCAA Tournament play since the 1996 season, when the Patriots defeated Virginia 1-0 in the first round.
With the win, Mason advances to the second round of the tournament. The Patriots will play the second-seeded Maryland Terrapins (18-3-0), the winners of the ACC Championship, on Tuesday, Nov. 25 at 7 p.m. in College Park, Md.
After a scoreless first half, Mason went on the attack to begin the second half. Only 1:45 after the intermission, senior forward Kwame Adjeman-Pamboe found Eber Martinez open in the middle of the field. After gathering the pass from Adjeman-Pamboe, Eber Martinez launched a shot from 25 yards out that curved into the upper-left corner of the net for his second goal in the past three matches.
The Quakers had some opportunities to tie the score but were unable to come up with the equalizer despite taking six shots in the second half to the Patriots’ two. In the final 15 minutes of action, Penn took four shots but two were stopped by Mason junior goalkeeper Sean Kelley, who made five saves in 90 minutes of action. His counterpart, Penn senior goalkeeper Drew Healy made two saves in the match.
Both goalkeepers were tested early in the match as both sides took a penalty kick within the first 33 minutes of play. In the 28th minute, Penn’s leading scorer, senior forward Omid Shokoufandeh, tried to sneak a penalty kick into the right corner of the goal past Kelley. However, Kelley ranged to his right to come up with the diving stop to keep the Quakers off the scoreboard. Mason took a penalty kick of its own in the 33rd minute when sophomore forward Irvin Martinez got his chance. However, the play in goal was outstanding again as Healy knocked the shot away to deny Irvin Martinez.
The 14 wins is the most for the program since the 1996 season. Mason has ripped off eight consecutive victories, outscoring opponents 20-4 during that stretch on its way to a national ranking of 18th in the latest Soccer America poll. The Patriots’ defense has also been stellar during the eight-match winning streak, recording six shutouts, for a total of 10 during the 2008 season.