Sept. 8, 2005
Fairfax, Va.--George Mason University's men's soccer team (2-0) is one of four teams that will compete in the adidas/Brown Soccer Classic this weekend in Providence, R.I. The Patriots will first face No. 8 Connecticut (2-0) on Sept. 9 at 5 p.m. and will then square-off with host-school, Brown, on Sept. 11 (2:30 p.m.). Mason will not see action against the fourth school participating, UNC Greensboro.
The Patriots got off to a perfect 2-0 for the 2005 campaign this past weekend under new head coach Greg Andrulis. Mason first edged Liberty 3-2 in overtime in Lynchburg on Sept. 2 and went on to top Philadelphia 2-1 in the Patriots' home opener two days later.
Junior midfielder Francis McCardle (Fairfax, Va.) scored a pair of goals in his Patriots' debut at Liberty, including the game-winner which came just 1:10 into the first overtime, while senior defender Anthony Noreiga (San Fernando, Trinidad) netted the game-tying goal in the 88th minute. Junior midfielder Josh Fleming (Fairfax, Va.) scored the game-winner against Philadelphia in the 79th minute off of an assist from sophomore forward Dan Ames (Livonia, N.Y.). It was Fleming's first career goal and Ames' first assist.
UConn began the year at its own UConn/adidas Classic and closed out the weekend with a 2-0 record. The Huskies first defeated St. Peter's by a score of 2-0 (Sept. 2) and went on to claim a 2-0 victory against Hartwick on Sept. 4. This is the first time that UConn has began the season with two shutout wins since the 1989 season when UConn did not give up a goal through the first four games of the year. In the Huskies' first two games of the season, four different players scored the team's first four goals of the year. Kevin Burns, Ryan Cordeiro, Willis Forko and Moshe Shalchon each found the back of the net for UConn, with Shalchon's goal against St. Peter's standing as his first career tally.
Brown also opened up its season at the UConn/adidas Classic this past weekend. The Bears first faced Hartwick and fell by a score of 2-1, but went on to defeat St. Peter's, 5-0. Kevin Davies collected two goals off of two shots for Brown, while Ibrahim Diane dished out two assists on the weekend. David Semenza played the entire 180 minutes in the net for the Bears and earned a GAA of 1.00 and a save percentage of .667.
Mason is 0-1 against UConn all-time as the Patriots fell to the Huskies by a score of 3-2 on Sept. 4, 1993 on neutral ground. This marks the first meeting for Mason and Brown University.
The Patriots' match-up with the Huskies will be available to listen live on the Internet at www.whus.org. There is also a link posted on Mason's men's soccer schedule page. Mason's game against Brown will be televised by Comcast locally in the Connecticut area, but not in the DC Metropolitan region.
