WE DID IT! The guy's brought another Atlantic 10 Championship back to URI. The third in four years! What a streak. Hopefully many of you got to see the games this past weekend via webcast from the University of North Carolina - Charlotte. If you didn't, it was a weekend that would have made you proud.
The team went into the tournament as the #2 seed and the advantage of having the semi-final be our first game. We arrived in Charlotte on Wednesday and got a chance to train and get used to the lay of the land. On Thursday the team spent the morning in study hall, midday training and then watched the quarterfinals to see who we would play on Friday. In the first game #3 seed Richmond beat Xavier 1-0 on a goal in the last 2 minutes. In the nightcap host UNC-Charlotte battled Duquesne in a great game to watch with the Dukes ending up on the plus side of a 1-0 score. Richmond would be our next game by virtue of the Spiders being the highest seed remaining of the four. We could now make our plans.
On Friday the game could not have come any sooner. The guy's spent the day in anticipation of the game that night. After a nice pre-game meal at Cirro's Italian Restaurant which was adjacent to our hotel, we got ourselves ready. When we arrived at the field top seed St. Louis University was deadlocked with Duquesne at the half. The Billikens got a second-half goal with about 20 minutes to go put them in the lead, and eventually into the final on Sunday.
Now it was our turn. The first 20 minutes of the match with Richmond was all URI. The ball was "pinging" around and through the Spider defense creating numerous chances. Danleigh Borman (Cape Town, South Africa), who was playing center midfield in place of Dawid Badecki (Jelenia Gora, Poland) who was sitting because of yellow card accumulation, got the best opportunity on a short clearance and made it count. He proceeded to hit a cracker of a volley from 18 yards that deflected off a Richmond defender and into the back of the net. The team was ecstatic! Richmond mounted a formidable comeback but the defense held strong and the game ended 1-0.
The final would now be a rematch of the 2005 Atlantic 10 finals.
Saturday was a recovery day and a chance to relax and have some fun. We had a light training session which mainly consisted of a hotly contested game of soccer tennis. The mood was light and the confidence was high. We returned to Cirro's for another nice meal - carbo loading for Sunday's match. A good nights rest would do us well and I knew after our team meeting that night, the boy's would be ready to play.
We awoke to a beautiful morning on Sunday and the weather was going to be perfect for the final. We headed over and got our warm-up going and before we knew it, it was game time. St. Louis was the 9th ranked team in the country coming into the match in the first 20 minutes they showed us why.
The guy's withstood the attacks and looked to capitalize on Billiken mistakes. Senior forward Jeff Gonsalves (Markham, Ontario) did just that when he shot a ball at a surprised SLU goalkeeper which deflected off his hands into the goal... 1-0 Rams.
After the interval we returned to the field knowing that SLU would be pressing to score. Just 5 minutes into the second stanza, Atlantic 10 Tournament MVP Danleigh Borman received a ball out of our defense and knocked it over the SLU defenders to Lukasz Tumicz (Bisztynek, Poland), who deftly side-footed a volley over a stranded St. Louis goalkeeper for a 2-0 lead. Now we were cooking!
SLU continued but seemed to deflate. However they still came at us because they are a quality team. We got some timely help from super subs Joe Spofford (Waterville, ME), Steve Mellen (N. Kingstown, RI), Kedan Crosby (St. James Trinidad) and Steven Scalzo (Plymouth, MN) and we defended well and killed the game. The A-10 Championship and the NCAA automatic bid were ours!
So, now it's on to the Big Dance... the third time in the past four years! I've received a tremendous amount of congratulatory e-mails and phone calls but I have to thank Eddie Bradley for handing to me (on a silver platter) a great squad and terrific bunch of men. He, along with our parents, friends and alums supported and encouraged us when we were 1-2-2 back in September, having the faith that we could do it.
Other people like Dr. John Sullivan our sports psychologist, Doug Stone in strength and conditioning and GK coach Ben Smith donated their time and are pivotal elements in getting us to this point. Lastly, our athletic trainer Michelle "Dr. Frankenstein" Levreault, Frank Bergren, Pat Laughlin and Gareth Elliott have been consistent forces in keeping our team together (literally).
We're gonna make a run at it and we hope you will keep up with us as we begin the second season at Rutgers University on November 11th!
GO RAMS!
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