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University of Massachusets Athletics
Men's Soccer Opens Conference Action on Saturday
September 23, 1999 | Men's Soccer
Sept. 23, 1999
The road to Dayton and the Bell Atlantic/Atlantic 10 Championship begins this weekend for UMass. UMass (5-3) and Rhode Island (4-1-1) will kick off the conference portions of their schedules this Saturday at 5:00 p.m. at the URI Soccer Complex in Kingston, R.I. Both teams enter the game ranked in the New England region?s top ten. URI is fourth. Previously unranked UMass, by virtue of their two wins this weekend, including their upset of #12 Washington, finds itself suddenly tied for seventh on the New England list.
?This is definitely a big game for us,? said UMass head coach Sam Koch. ?They?re a talented team. Their team speed is very good. They seem to blend well together. If they have a weakness, I haven?t been able to find it.? UMass, however, has not exactly been a pushover in the early stages of the season. The Minutemen are 5-3, have won their last two and five of their last six, and have wins over then #12 Washington, Maine (which was ranked #6 in the New England region at the time), perennial regional power Hartford, and a crushing 6-2 win over Georgia State.
Senior Adam Black has paced the Minutemen offensively, with five goals and an assist thus far and eleven goals and two assists in his last fifteen games. Black scored two goals, including the game-winner, in Sunday?s overtime upset of Washington, and is currently second in the Atlantic 10 in scoring. At the opposite end of the field, the UMass goalkeeping duo of Todd Fowler and Bryan O?Quinn has kept the Minutemen in some of their closer matches. It was Fowler?s save of Washington All-American Wes Hart?s penalty kick in the closing minutes of regulation which kept the game tied and, more importantly, swung the momentum of the contest back into the favor of the Maroon and White.
?The goalkeeping has been very good,? said Koch. Todd Fowler and Bryan O?Quinn have both done an excellent job for us. Sometimes it?s tough to decide who?s going to get the opportunity to play each game. But it?s a nice problem to have, too.
?We?ve had great play all over the field. From the goalkeeping to the forwards, to the defense, to our midfielders, to our bench.? UMass has won five of the last nine meetings between the two schools. Last year, the two teams played to a 1-1 tie at Totman Field. This will be UMass? first trip to Kingston since 1996, when they dropped a 1-0 decision to the Rams in the season finale, a loss which left UMass on the outside looking in at the Atlantic 10 Tournament field.