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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

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Cardinals get rematch today with Buckeyes
By C. Ray Hall
crayhall@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal



The University of Louisville is unbeaten and unscored on in NCAA Men's Soccer Tournament history.
Time for a reality check: U of L's history in the big show consists of one game -- last week's 1-0 victory over Duke at Cardinal Park.
Still, perfect is perfect, and U of L (11-6-4) hopes to stay that way when it faces 18th-ranked Ohio State in a second-round game at 5 p.m. today in Columbus. The winner gets the winner of Washington and California Santa Barbara, with the time and site to be announced.
Today's game at 5 p.m. EST is a rematch of a Halloween hookup between the Cardinals and Buckeyes. That match settled nothing: The teams tied 1-1 at Cardinal Park.

Continued....

[Emperor Brutus]

Friday:

Boston U 1, U Mass 2
Stuart Amick beat the keeper on the left side to put the Minutemen up by one in the 24th.
In the 67th Michael Jejna headed home U Mass’s second goal.
Derek Puerta put BU on the board in the 87th.
BU had their chances including 3 shots in the last 40 seconds.
U Mass might have a chance if BC’s best player is still out or hindered, but I wouldn’t bet on it, they get smoked in the next round.

UIC 0, St Louis 0, UIC advances on PKs, 6-5
Dull, dull game, worst match of the day. Sure both of these teams play solid defense but UIC needs to find some offence or they are going home in the next round.
Northwestern will take care of business and move on, UIC goes home.

Duke 0, Louisville 1
Frank Jonke scored in the 28th to put Louisville up by one.
Duke looked worn down, not the inspired performance I expected out of them for their coach.
Ken Lolla (Louisville coach) sent his alma mater packing. Duke should really go after Lolla to replace Rennie, he is one of, if not the best college coach out there right now.
We took it to them on their home turf, we’ll beat them on ours.

Portland 0 Washington 1
Scoreless until the 86th minute when a Portland defender pulled down Matt Van Houten in the box. Ely Allen put the PK in the net and Portland had little chance of coming back with the time remaining.
Washington might pull the upset here, but it’s more likely that UCSB pulls it out.

Colgate 1, South Florida 2
Jason Devenish put the first goal in for South Florida.
Glenn Volk scored the equalizer in the 53rd.
Yohance Marshall scored the game winner in the 72nd.
The Bulls will take on Akron, I think Akron wins.

UC Davis 1 California 2, 2OT
Best shot of the day, Andrew Jacobson for Cal was 25 yards out, five yards to the right of the defense, he let it fly and it found its way to the far left side of the goal.
Quincy Amarikwa tied the game up during a scramble in front of the goal that he was able to head home just above the keeper’s reach.
Cal’s winner came off a botched collection by the keeper off a throw in. the ball was poorly cleared and Andrew Wiedeman sent it into the net with a lackluster effort that could have been saved.
The Berkley Bears were the better team, but not by much.
Best player on the pitch clearly Amarikwa.
V Tech should hold their own against Cal, but I don’t think they will. I’ll call for the upset in the next round.

St. Peter's 1, Virginia 3
St. Peter’s went up by one on a Braulio Constantino goal, this would have been a huge upset.
It wasn’t looking good for the cavaliers until the 50th when Ross LaBaeux put the equalizer in.
In the 77th St. Pete's Yacob Rahav was sent off with his second yellow.
Playing a man up Dane Murphy scored the winner for UVA.
Chris Tierney then finished it off in the 84th to pt the game out of reach.
The Mountaineers will send Virginia home in the next round.

Saturday:

Central Connecticut 3, Harvard 2
Conor Smith put CC on the board in the 21st.
Harvard tied the game up on a John Stamatis goal in the 36th.
Andrew Cooper put CC back on top in the 52nd.
Andre Akpan tied it up again in the definition of a back and forth game.
Finally Jan Klukowski put the game winner in, in the 84th.
Biggest upset so far. Andre Akpan is arguably the best college soccer player in America.
Tulsa lucks out with a CC win here, I think Harvard could have taken them down but they will roll on CC.

Gonzaga 0 SMU 1
The Gonzaga keeper Vito Higgins had an amazing night, under assault the entire game he didn’t let a single goal in from the run of play. It took a Bruno Guarda PK to get one in for SMU, the Zags keeper deserved to win, they rest of them got what they deserved.
SMU will take on Creighton in the next round in what will be a close game. If SMU can play the same they should win, no way a goalie comes up that big in two games against them in a row.

Liberty 0, Loyola 2
Eddie Dines put Loyola up on Liberty in the 30th.
Phil Bannister doubled the lead in the 40th before halftime.
After the break Loyola easily kept Liberty out of the goal and won comfortably.
Loyola should put up a good fight against Maryland but come up short in the next round.

DePaul 0 Bradley 2
Stephen Brust scored the first goal of the game in the 61st.
Justin Bigelow put in the insurance goal in the 83rd.
Bradly runs into a buzz saw against Indiana Hoosiers roll in the next round.

Vermont 1, Dartmouth 1, Vermont advances on PKs, 4-3
In an embarrassing turn of events for Vermont Dartmouth scored in the first minute off a PK by Daniel Keat.
Vermont would lose their best player when Lee Stephane Kouadio their leading scorer accumulated two yellows in the 22nd. Vermont would play the rest of the way a man down.
Even more embarrassing for Dartmouth they would let Vermont back in the game in the 89th minute Connor Tobin PK.
Neither team could score in overtime so it would come down to PKs and Vermont would take the game.
This bizarre result shouldn’t have much effect on the next round as neither team stood much of a chance against U Conn anyway. It will go from a complete domination in every facet of the game to a simple schooling by the huskies.

Providence 0, Old Dominion 1
Ambane Emmanuel would put in the loan score in this game to lead Old Dominon past Providence.
I’m calling for the upset here too Old Dominion takes a tough Brown team in the next round.

New Mexico 0, UCLA 1
In a defensive struggle where UCLA had the better run of play it took 88 minutes to separate these two teams. In the 88th Kyle Nakazawa sent the controversial Bruins on to the next round.
UCLA doesn’t win in the next round against Santa Clara, their year is over.

Oakland 2, Michigan State 1
Sparty takes on a team that Sparty handeled during the reglar season, Sparty loses, same old Sparty.
In an embarrassing performance for the Big Ten Piotr Nowak put Oakland up by one in the 38th, then Stefan St. Louis doubles up on Michigan State in the 46th.
Doug DeMartin put the Spartans on the board in the 76th, but they couldn’t get the equalizer.
Horrible performance by the Spartans, now Oakland will take on Notre Dame, another team Michigan State beat in the regular season and I thought they could beat again.
Oakland falls to Notre Dame in the next round, the Irish move on.

Campbell 0, Furman 2
Furman went up on Campbell on a Chris Davis strike in the 35th.
Furman ended the game on a Haris Cekic goal in the 89th.
A good win for Furman, but they will get smoked by Wake in the next round.

That’s it for the first round more to come later.

[Emperor Brutus]

I’m going to the soccer game at five and then the basketball game after that, so don’t expect an Ohio State recap until tomorrow. Sorry, I’ll just likely be exhausted once I get home.

[Bucky Katt]

Since Emperor Brutus is slacking....

OSU advances to the round of 16 with a 1-0 victory of Louisville.

Columbus Dispatch

Men's soccer: Buckeyes advance in NCAA with goal on rebound

Thursday, November 29, 2007 3:18 AM
By Jeremy McLaughlin


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

In their scouting report, Ohio State men's soccer coaches noticed Louisville was susceptible to giving up rebounds and implored the Buckeyes to score on those opportunities.
Andrew Magill recalled that as he saw teammate Danny Irizarry sprint through the Louisville defense early in the second half last night in Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. He got in position and kicked in the rebound off Irizarry's shot to give OSU a 1-0 win over the Cardinals in an NCAA second-round tournament game.

Cont...

Just kidding, Emperor. The updates have been outstanding!

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

Men's soccer: Buckeyes advance in NCAA with goal on rebound

Thursday, November 29, 2007 3:18 AM
By Jeremy McLaughlin


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

In their scouting report, Ohio State men's soccer coaches noticed Louisville was susceptible to giving up rebounds and implored the Buckeyes to score on those opportunities.
Andrew Magill recalled that as he saw teammate Danny Irizarry sprint through the Louisville defense early in the second half last night in Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. He got in position and kicked in the rebound off Irizarry's shot to give OSU a 1-0 win over the Cardinals in an NCAA second-round tournament game.

Continued......

[Emperor Brutus]

In the second round (Ohio State’s first game) of the tournament the Buckeyes faced off against Louisville again. Ohio State played Louisville earlier in the season on their field in a stalemate one all tie. In that game Ohio State had the better run of play and were closer to scoring their second than the Cardinals were, with that in mind the Buckeyes were confident going into this game.

From the start of the game it was clear what Louisville’s game plan was, triple team Balc and make the rest of the team beat them. Ken Lolla coached at Akron before going to Louisville and he was well aware that Balc is not only the most talented player on the roster, but the heart of all offensive production on the team. It was made perfectly clear that if Ohio State wanted this game another Buckeye would have to step up, the career leader in assists was the defense’s only concern tonight.

Ohio State came out fresh but rusty from their 17 day layoff. Ohio State played aggressive in the opening half possessing the ball and getting plenty of shots off, but not getting them on target, many times giving the keeper easy saves. Ohio State kept constant pressure until they got a goal. In the 53rd Danny Irizarry possessed the ball at midfield avoided a few tackles and dribbled into the box, he took a hard shot that the keeper got his hands on but couldn’t handle. Andrew Magill trailing the play made his run into the box collecting the rebound and finding the back of the net. The Buckeyes would continue to attack for much of the rest of the game until coach Bluem made rather questionable decisions. While Louisville was putting together good possessions the game had remained fairly even after the goal.

Lolla began putting all of his offensive minded players on the field, instead of letting his attacking players take advantage of the lack of defenders in the game Bluem pulled the players that could hold and advance the ball in favor of more defenders. Now almost all of the play was on Ohio State’s side of the field, while the defense could clear the ball the Buckeyes could not keep the ball away from the Cardinals and they would build up the attack again. Latchem had to come up big for the Bucks time and time again, it looked like Louisville was going to get the equalizer, it was just a matter of time.

Finally Bluem put some holding and advancing players back on the field. Balc and the others maintained possession well for the rest of the game. While not all of the scares were eliminated they were greatly reduced in number and Latchem could finally catch his breath. Ohio State ran the clock out and won the game, but it was much closer than it needed to be.

[Emperor Brutus]

Ohio State’s next opponent:

Don’t sleep on the Gauchos, UC Santa Barbara is a talented team and the defending national champions. They reached the college cup two out of the last three seasons, the first appearance was against Indiana, the Hoosiers were able to pull the game out with PKs to win the title. The Gauchos would make it back last year and would not be denied, they played UCLA a team the program has had little success over but pulled out a 2-1 victory.

UCSB started the year number one, while Ohio State is seeded 5th and UCSB was positioned 12th they were ahead of the Buckeyes in every major poll before post season play. The Gauchos return six starters from their championship team. Including Andy Iro a three time All-American and back-to-back Big West Conference Defensive Player of the Year, All-American and the Gauchos' leading scorer in 2006 Eric Avila, and Nick Perera last year’s College Cup Most Outstanding Offensive Player.

For most of the year Ohio State has relied on its defense to win games the Buckeyes have only allowed three goals during their 12 game unbeaten streak and posted five straight shutouts. Opponents have netted more than one goal just three times against the Buckeyes and keeper Casey Latchem. That mentality will be put to the test this Sunday Ohio State has put more than one goal on the board just six times this season compared to 13 multi-goal performances by the Gauchos.

The Buckeyes will need to play strong defense and get production from somewhere other than Balc if they want to win this game. UCSB is a team that knows how to win on the road on their way to the national title last year they had to get wins at Southern Methodist University and Old Dominion University. They have a 6-1-2 mark on the road this year winning their past four, The Gauchos do not get intimidated when they are down a goal either three of the last four road games they won were comebacks.