Oct. 28, 2008

Oct. 28 Men's Soccer Notebook

IRVING, Texas - No. 9 Tulsa scored nine goals last week en route to a 4-0 win over Oral Roberts and a 5-1 victory over Memphis, continuing a nine-game winning streak. During those nine games, TU outscored its opponent 27-5. Freshman Austin Neil continues to lead the Golden Hurricane with eight goals and four assists for 20 points, while Ashley McInnes, Eric DeFreitas, Jose Parada and Chris Taylor all have three goals on the season. Junior MF Joe Salem also helped TU last week as he attempted two shots from his position and held the two teams to a combined 23 shots and one goal.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
C.J. TAPPEL - Kentucky
So, F, Lexington, Ky.
Tappel had a career week in helping the Wildcats to two come-from-behind victories at home over UCF and FIU to move the Wilcatds’ win streak to a season-high four games. Tappel netted game-tying goals in each of UK’s wins, to tally four points in just 81 minutes. His first goal of the year came against UCF, as UK trailed in the 71st minute beforeTappel struck for the goal, tying the game at 1-1, which set up a Wildcat game-winner eight minutes later. In UK’s two overtime, golden-goal win over FIU, UK faced a 2-1 deficit in the 64th minute when Tappel hooked up with Masumi Turnbull on the equalizer, sending the game to overtime and an eventual Turnbull golden-goal win in the 103rd minute. On the year, Tappel – a 2007 C-USA All-Freshmen team member – has netted two goals and added two assists. The weekly honor is the first of Tappel’s career.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
CRAIG HILL - SMU
Jr., GK, San Antonio, Texas
Hill posted a pair of shutouts on the road - his fifth and sixth shutouts of the season - to lead the Mustangs to a pair of 2-0 victories against Conference USA foes UAB and UCF. Hill recorded five saves against the Blazers and eight against the Knights, raising his season saves total to 56 and lowering his goals-against average to 0.85. This is Hill’s first career Player of the Week accolade.

SHOOTING STARS
- Tulsa sophomore MF Ashley McInnes scored three of TU’s nine goals last week, including two goals against Memphis and one goal against ORU. One of his goals against the Tigers was a game-winner. He attempted eight shots on the week, five of which were on goal. McInnes has three goals and four assists for 10 points, the third-most points for the Golden Hurricane this year.

- South Carolina sophomore F Sam Arthur tallied his team-leading 11th goal of the season and sixth game-winner of the year in South Carolina’s 1-0 shutout of Marshall. The Gamecock victory snapped a three-game winless streak. Arthur leads South Carolina in nearly every offensive statistical category with 11 goals, 37 shots, six game-winning goals and 25 points on the year.

- Gamecock GK Jimmy Maurer played a stellar match in net in a 1-0 shutout of Marshall. The Lawrenceville, Ga., native collected seven saves to earn his seventh shutout of the season, the most in a single season by a Carolina goalkeeper since 2006. Maurer ranks among C-USA leaders with a 0.83 goals against average and an .848 save percentage.

- Making his first career start in the net for UAB, redshirt freshman Tucker Stone played sensational in collecting his first career shutout with a 1-0 win over SIU-Edwardsville last Saturday. Stone kept the Cougars scoreless with three saves en route to UAB’s third shutout of the 2008 campaign. His best save came midway through the first half when he made a diving stop on a SIUE shot attempt to keep the game scoreless.

NEWEST MEN’S SOCCER RPI RELEASED
The NCAA released the latest Men’s Soccer Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) of 2008 on Tuesday, Oct. 28. Four Conference USA teams were ranked in the Top 100 out of 203 teams. Tulsa was the highest rated C-USA team appearing at No. 18, followed by SMU at No. 55. South Carolina was rated No. 86 and Kentucky comes in at No. 97. A complete list of the most recent RPI rankings is located in the above PDF and the next report will be released Tuesday, Nov. 11.

MUSTANGS BACK ON WINNING PATH WITH TWO WINS
Senior F Paulo da Silva returned with a vengeance after a five-game layoff, coming off the bench to score both goals in a 2-0 SMU victory Saturday night at UCF in Orlando.

After the teams battled through a scoreless first half, da Silva broke the scoreless deadlock for good in the 53rd minute with his sixth goal of the season, an unassisted tally that broke the tie for the team goal-scoring lead that he shared with freshman MF Diogo da Almeida.

Just under two minutes later, da Silva added an insurance goal, converting assists from senior MF Gabe Arredondo and de Almeida to account for the final margin. da Silva’s seven goals are one shy of his career high for scores in a single season, set in 2005 when he scored eight goals en route to finishing second on the SMU team in scoring with 18 points.

The win was the team’s second in a row, after they also downed UAB on Wednesday, 2-0. da Almedia scored both SMU goals in the win, to bring his season total to five. He has 11 points on the season.

Junior GK Craig Hill posted his fifth and sixth shutouts of the season to lead the Mustangs in goal. Hill recorded five saves against the Blazers and eight against the Knights, raising his season saves total to 56 and lowering his goals-against average to 0.85.

KENTUCKY REMAINS IN SECOND PLACE
The Kentucky also went 2-0 last week to improve its win streak to a season-best four games. The Wildcats have posted four straight wins for just the second time since 2003 and the first time since the 2006 14-win season. The Wildcats have racked up wins over No. 18 South Carolina, UCF and FIU at home, while notching an overtime win on a Tyler Burns goal against UAB. UK has lost only four matches on the year, three coming on the road at Top 25 opponents (No. 7 UC Santa Barbara, No. 24 Cal Poly and No. 14 Tulsa).

On Saturday, UK posted a golden goal in the 103rd minute of a win over FIU, getting a game-winner from preseason All-Conference pick Masumi Turnbull and a game-tying goal from C.J. Tappel, in addition to Jason Griffiths’ fourth penalty kick goal of the year. In a 2-1 comeback win over UCF Tappel netted another game-tying goal, with Tim Crone netting his club-best third game-winner of the year in the 64th minute. For his efforts, Tappel was named the C-USA Offensive Player of the Week.