Soccer team drops opener

SALT LAKE CITY â€" The UCCS menâ€^TMs soccer team dropped a close contest to the Westminster College Griffins 2-1 Friday at the West Jordan soccer complex.

The Griffins were the first to strike with an excellent curving ball into the upper corner of the goal off a free kick in the 42nd minute. The goal was an end to a half that had seen the Mountain Lions dominate both possession and opportunities on goal.

Probably the best opportunity came in the 20th minute when Brandon Best took a shot across the mouth of an empty goal. Jeff Halligan almost created his own scoring opportunity by working hard to get a shot off that sailed just high, in the first few minutes of the game.

The defense of Jeff Gerali, Art Cutter, Eric Foulk, and Brian Best, played a solid first half, with the unlucky exception of a professional foul in the closing minutes of the half.

After a tactical halftime discussion, the Mountain Lions came out composed and confident that the game was not yet out of their reach. With the exceptional play of freshman Jeff Bettner, the Mountain Lions were awarded a penalty kick in the 50th minute, which captain Eric Foulk tucked away to tie the game at 1-1.

Enthused, the Mountain Lions could feel that they were quickly taking control of the game. The pressure applied by the Mountain Lions led to a quick counterattack by the Griffins who were stopped by a tackle from Art Cutter, but the Center Official of the match judged the tackle to be dangerous and gave Cutter his second yellow card of the match.

When asked about the impact of their central back being red carded Evan Neufeld said, “Cutter being carded really slowed us down.”

With ten men the Mountain Lions stayed resilient but their offensive momentum had been dashed. The Griffins scored their second goal off a quick combination play in the 67th minute.

The real character of the UCCS soccer team showed in the last 23 minutes as they were able to produce good scoring opportunities that were repelled by the Griffins keeper.

“It took us a little while to reorganize but once we did we definitely produced some good opportunities” said Neufeld.

The play of Marcus Reynolds was particularly notable, as he gave the Griffins trouble on both offense and defense.