Men's Soccer Weekly Report #3

Sept. 4, 2006

Complete Release (updated to include weekly polls) in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader

Horizon League Player of the Week

Grant Fernstrum, UW-Milwaukee
Sophomore * Goalkeeper * Green Bay, Wis.
Fernstrum helped the Panthers get back to .500 on the season (2-2-0) with back-to-back shutouts, the 11th and 12th of his career. He was named to the Panther Invitational All-Tournament Team after recording a total of seven saves in victories over IPFW (3-0) and Lipscomb (4-0), which cut his season goals-against average in half from 2.00 to 1.00.

Other Top Performances for the Week Ending September 3

Frank Patano, Butler
So. * F * Franklin Park, Ill.
Patano scored both goals in Butler's 2-0 victory over Dayton on Thursday night, extending the Bulldogs' season-opening unbeaten run to three matches. He shares the League lead with four goals and eight points this season.

Dan Duric, Cleveland State
Fr. * GK * Mentor, Ohio
Duric posted a shutout at Pittsburgh in his first career match as a Viking. Duric played all 110 minutes, stopping six shots in his initial collegiate action as the Vikings played the Big East Conference foe to a 0-0 overtime draw.

Mark Djurovski, Detroit
Jr. * F * Shelby Township, Mich.
Djurovski was named the Offensive MVP of the UB Classic, scoring two goals and one assist in a pair of matches last weekend. He hit the net in each contest and also set up the Titans' first strike in a 3-2 loss to Canisius.

Cesar Zambrano
Jr. * M * Chicago, Ill.
Zambrano posted the first multi-goal game of his career in UIC's 3-0 victory over UMKC on Friday. He scored twice in a two-minute span to secure the victory, and also assisted on Pavle Dundjer's marker to open the scoring.

Alex Jones, Loyola
Fr. * F * Downers Grove, Ill.
Jones scored his second goal of the year to give Loyola a 1-0 victory over UNC Charlotte on Friday night. The unassisted tally came midway through the second half as the Ramblers gained their first win of the season.

Joshua Okoampa, UW-Green Bay
Sr. * F * Brooklyn Park, Minn.
Okoampa played a role in all of the Phoenix scoring last week, posting a goal and an assist in UWGB's 3-2 loss to Evansville on Friday. He now leads the team in scoring with five points (two goals and an assist) this season.

Tebias Mason, Wright State
Jr. * GK * Santa Rosa, Calif.
Mason recorded his second shutout of the season with eight saves in a 2-0 victory over Birmingham Southern on Friday. He added six more stops in the Raiders' 3-2 loss to UAB on Sunday.

News From Around the League

Flames stay undefeated, enter national poll
UIC starts the week 3-0-1 overall and ranked 18th in the nation according to Soccer America, which recognized the Flames' 2-1 overtime victory over Bradley on Sunday. The ranking is UIC's first venture into the Top 25 since October 15, 2001, when the NSCAA/adidas canvass had the Flames 24th.

The Horizon League's last remaining unbeaten team puts that national ranking on the line Friday night when UIC visits 12th-ranked UC Santa Barbara. The Flames have already posted three road wins over top 25 teams in the past two seasons, including a 1-0 triumph over (then #24 and current #25) Saint Louis to begin the 2006 campaign.

Senior forward Tonci Skroce added to his legacy of clutch goal-scoring with the OT strike, his third golden goal and seventh match-winner in the past two seasons.

Sunday's triumph marked the end of two streaks. Bradley's goal 5:27 into the match was the first allowed by the Flames in 2006, ending a 295-minute scoreless run to open the year. UIC has outscored its opponents 6-1 so far this season. The victory also marked Bradley's first OT loss in almost six years, snapping a 25-match (11-0-14) streak in extra time for the Braves.

Junior midfielder Cesar Zambrano matched a career-high with five points with two goals and a helper in a 3-0 victory over UMKC.

Bulldogs holding opponents at bay
Butler moved to 2-1-1 after splitting two matches last week. The Bulldogs shut out Dayton 2-0 on Friday before suffering a 2-1 overtime loss at Evansville on Sunday.

Sophomore forward Frank Patano scored both Butler goals against the Flyers, giving him a League-best four for the season. Patano registered two goals and two assists for the entire 2005 campaign.

Senior goalkeeper Frank Peabody turned in his second shutout of the season with four saves at Dayton, giving him ten whitewashes for his career. Peabody owns a 0.70 goals-against mark this fall, allowing only three markers in more than 386 minutes of action.

Senior midfielder Tom Turner scored his first goal as a Bulldog in Sunday's loss at Evansville. Turner played in 16 matches last season after transferring from Drury University.

The Butler defense has allowed only three goals in four matches this season, while the Bulldogs have scored ten already. A goal by Evansville at the 23:51 mark was the first BU has allowed in the first half this year. Butler has outscored opponents 4-1 before intermission and 6-1 in the second half.

Butler continues an extended run away from home this week, playing twice at Ann Arbor, Mich. BU doesn't make its home debut until Sept. 18, versus Western Kentucky.

Vikings suffer first loss but keep improving
Cleveland State saw its season-opening three-match unbeaten run come to an end in Sunday's 1-0 loss to Western Michigan. The Vikings carry a 2-1-1 mark which also includes last Wednesday's scoreless overtime battle at Pittsburgh.

The Vikings went 274:58 without allowing a goal prior to WMU's strike midway through the second half Sunday. CSU has allowed only two goals in its first four matches of 2006, compared to 65 given up in an 0-17-1 campaign last fall.

Freshman goalkeeper Dan Duric made an auspicious CSU debut, turning away six shots in the shutout versus Pittsburgh. Duric and sophomore Kasey Gray have combined for a 0.47 goals-against mark so far in 2006.

The Vikings allowed only one goal in their first three matches this season, the program's best three-outing span in almost a decade. The lat time CSU allowed only one goal in a three-match span came at the start of the 1997 season with shutouts of UW-Green Bay and UNC Asheville wrapped around a 4-1 victory over Valparaiso.

Cleveland State also has displayed a balanced offensive attack, as CSU has outscored its opponents 7-2 with seven different Vkings each scoring one goal. Five of those seven goals have come from freshmen, helping first-year Viking coach Ali Kazemaini continue his impressive early-season turnaround. CSU opens League play on Saturday, hosting UW-Green Bay.

Titans take a break before League play
Detroit stands at 2-2-0 following a split in two matches at the University at Buffalo Classic. The Titans edged host UB 1-0 on Friday but could not avoid a 3-2 defeat at the hands of Canisius on Sunday.

Junior forward Mark Djurovski continued his fast start, drawing Offensive MVP honors at the tournament after recording a goal in each contest and adding an assist versus Canisius. He leads UDM with three goals and seven assists.

Senior defender Jason Massoglia and senior midfielder Vahid Assadpour joined Djurovski on the All-Tournament Team. Massoglia (one goal) is the only other Titan to hit the net so far this fall, opening the scoring just 53 seconds into the match versus Canisius. Assadpour, who led the League with ten assists last season, gained his first helper of 2006 by setting up Djurovski's match-winner versus Buffalo on Friday.

Junior goalkeeper Sasha Boskovic posted his second shutout of the year against Buffalo for the 15th whitewash of his career. Boskovic has compiled a 1.25 goals-against average in the first two weeks of the season.

The Titans are idle this week before opening the League schedule versus UW-Milwaukee on Sept. 15. That contest starts a four-match homestand for UDM, which has a Sept. 27 date at Michigan as its only action outside Detroit Oct. 6.

Panthers get back to break-even
UW-Milwaukee bounced back from an 0-2-0 start with two shutout victories last week, blanking IPFW (3-0) and Lipscomb (4-0) to win the title of its own Panther Invitational. The Panthers face a pair of Top-25 teams this weekend when Creighton and Washington round out the field at Wisconsin's Big Toe Classic.

Sophomore goalkeeper Grant Fernstrum recorded seven saves in the two matches to earn All-Tournament honors. He moved into tenth place on the school's all-time shutouts list with 12 in his career (including ten last season).

Junior midfielder Martin Castro and senior defender Billy Meier also drew All-Tournament notice, with Castro scoring a pair of goals against Lipscomb. All four goals in that contest came from Panther reserves, with Colin Baker and Steve Sperl also hitting the net.

The two victories continued UWM's dominance on its home field. The Panthers are now 45-6-2 at Engelmann Field since the start of the 2001 campaign. Friday's victory over IPFW was also the first for new Panther coach Jon Coleman.

Raiders continue scoring pace
Wright State split two matches at the UAB Classic, winning third place in a tournament for the second weekend in a row. The Raiders moved to 2-2-0 on the season with a 2-0 victory over Birmingham Southern before a 3-2 setback to the host Blazers.

The Raiders have yet to be shut out in 2006, and have outscored their opponents 9-5 in those four contests.

Freshman forward Braden Fleak continued his impressive start, netting his fourth goal of the season. Those four markers put him in a tie with Butler's Frank Patano for the League lead, while sophomore forward Josh Grossman, freshman striker Adam Harp and sophomore defender Michael Conley each added their first goals of the year.

Fleak was one of three Raiders named to the UAB Classic All-Tournament team, joining freshman midfielder Jonah Longino and senior defender Jonah Baskin on that list. Fleak and Baskin were also All-Tourney picks in the WSU adidas Cup the previous weekend, while Longino earned notice this week by setting up both goals against Birmingham Southern.

Phoenix prepares for home, League debuts
UW-Green Bay stands at 1-2-0 overall after a 3-2 loss at Evansville on Friday night.

Senior forward Joshua Okoampa played a role in both Phoenix goals at Evansville, setting up Michael Lepera's first goal of the season early in the second half and then converting a penalty-kick opportunity for his second goal of the year. Okoampa, who shared the League lead with ten goals in 2005, now tops the Phoenix charts with five points (two goals and an assist) this year, with freshman midfielder David Znaty contributing four points off one goal plus two helpers.

The Phoenix make its home-field debut Wednesday versus Marquette and former UW-Milwaukee coach Louis Bennett. The Phoenix is 2-0-0 in home openers under coach Tom Poitras, defeating Lipscomb 2-0 to pen the 2004 campaign and Eastern Ililnois 3-1 in the first match of the year at Aldo Santaga Stadium last fall.

UW-Green Bay kicks off the 2006 Horizon League schedule on Saturday at Cleveland State, the Phoenix's earliest League debut since 2000 (a 1-0 loss to Loyola on Sept. 6).

Ramblers break into victory column
Loyola split two contests last week, moving to 1-3-0 on the season after a 1-0 victory over UNC Charlotte on Friday and a 3-0 setback to host Davidson on Sunday. The Davidson battle was scoreless for the first 76 minutes before the hosts erupted for three goals in a 12-minute stretch to put the match out of reach.

Freshman forward Alex Jones scored the second goal of his young career in Friday's victory, hitting the net from six yards out midway through the second half to give the Ramblers their initial victory of the year. Jones has two of the team's three goals this season, with senior forward Matt Marek owning the other.

Junior forward Keum Sung Kim had a chance to extend the lead on Friday, only to see his shot hit the crossbar with 15 minutes left to play. Kim led the team with six goals, five assists and 17 points last year but is still looking for his first point of 2006.

Senior goalkeeper Sean Bond recorded his second career shutout Friday with four saves against UNC Charlotte. The veteran also had three stops versus Davidson, holding the WIldcats off the board for the first 76:29 of that contest.

Valparaiso keeps on rolling
Valparaiso, which officially joins the Horizon League in 2007, continued its torrid start with a 3-2 victory at UC Davis on Saturday night, improving to 3-0-0 on the season. The Crusaders put try to extend that start---the program's best since 1987---Monday afternoon at Sacramento State in the finale of the Copa de Causeway tournament. A win would give Valpo is best opening in school history.

Senior forward D.J. Caro scored twice in the first 17 minutes Saturday, with senior midfielder J.J. Eschenburg adding the other tally.

Sophomore midfielder Paul Leitelt was named the NSCAA's first National Player of the Week after his four-goal, ten-point weekend to open the season. Those ten points would lead the Horizon League charts. Leitelt has already surpassed his scoring total for 2005.