Sept. 19, 2004

Box Score

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J.--George Mason University's men's soccer team (3-3) fell to No. 23 Seton Hall (4-2-1) by a score of 5-3, at Owen T. Carroll Field Sunday afternoon in the closing game of the St. John's Classic.

Pirates Jerrod Laventure knocked in his first goal of the day on a rebound at the 26:01 mark with Mark Pedreiras earning the assist. Gonzalez and Laventure hooked up again just over two minutes later when Gonzalez took a pass from his attack partner in the box and slid to knock the ball past a diving O'Hara making it 2-0 in favor of the Pirates.

Laventure gave the Pirates a cushion with a pair of goals in a two-minute span in the second half to finish the hat trick. In the 58th minute he settled a crossing pass from Michael Zotti to get past a defender and ripped a shot from 10 yards. His third goal came at 60:31 when he ran onto a neat pass from Sacha Kljestan that split the defense. Laventure then put his shot past the goalkeeper from 15 yards, making it 4-1 in favor of SHU.

Mason managed to cut the lead to a goal twice in the second half, but could not get the equalizer. Junior defender Anthony Noreiga scored the Patriots first goal of the afternoon when he deflected an attempted clearing pass from SHU's Ian Joyce and it bounded into the empty net, cutting the deficit to 2-1. After another SHU goal, the Patriots tallied a pair of goals in the final 10 minutes. The first came after senior defender Danny Climo's corner kick was headed to the far side of the net by senior midfielder Damien Quinn where it found junior defender Damian O'Rourke, who headed it into the back of the net. Mason cut it to 4-3, after senior midfielder Matt Mendy headed home a rebound off of a shot by junior forward Teba McKnight. Freshman Yomar Gonzalez ended the rally when he kicked in a rebound from Kljestan at the 86:39 mark, to give SHU a 5-3 advantage.

Senior goalkeeper John O'Hara made five saves for the Patriots, while Joyce made one save for the Pirates to earn the win. The win helped Seton Hall (4-2-1) remain unbeaten at home dating back to October 27, 2002, a span of 12 games. SHU has gone 10-0-2 in that span.

Mason will return to action on Sept. 25 when the Patriots face George Washington in Washington, D.C. at 4 p.m.

SCORING SUMMARY
                            1        2        F
George Mason (3-3-0)        0        3 --     3
#23 Seton Hall (4-2-1)      2        3 --     5
SHU        Jerrod Laventure (3) (Gonzalez, Pedreiras)        26:01
SHU        Yomar Gonzalez (1) (Laventure)        28:23
GMU        Anthony Noriega (2)        46:11
SHU        Laventure (4) (Zotti)        58:39
SHU        Laventure (5) (Kljestan)        60:31
GMU        Damian O'Rourke (1) (Quinn, Climo)        81:18
GMU        Matt Mendy (3) (McKnight)        82:34
SHU        Gonzalez (2) (Kljestan)        86:39
Shots: SHU 19, GMU 10
Corner Kicks: SHU 4, GMU 4
Saves: SHU 1 (Ian Joyce 1), GMU 5 (John O'Hara 5)
Offsides: SHU 8, GMU 5