September 6, 2011

Dear Alums & Friends,

What a great atmosphere here in Kingston last night with over 2500 in attendance for the consolation and finals of the Ocean State Soccer Classic. We had great support from the South County community as well as the student body which made it the place to be on Labor Day. It was an exciting final pitting us against intrastate rival PC where unfortunately we fell to the Friars in OT 0-1.

The first game of the day saw Brown and Bryant lock horns in the consolation game that the Bears won 3-0. It was a very competitive and hard fought match providing plenty of entertainment. Come 7:30 pm when the final kicked off people were still coming into the field in droves including the URI athletics student support group “The Mob”, South Kingstown high school boy’s soccer as well as many families and friends who travelled to see the game.

We had made it to the final by virtue of a 1-0 victory at Bryant University on Friday in our semi-final match-up. It was a tough game to play as both teams battled it out through a scoreless first half. It was a pretty physical game and had to battle even harder when Matt Sykes (Sheffield, England) received his second yellow card of the match and we were down to 10 men. But the guy’s adjusted and kept plugging along until the final minute when junior forward Jamie Eckmayer (Harrington Park, NJ) was fouled just outside the box creating an excellent scoring opportunity. Freshmen Michael Casey (Wakefield, RI) slipped a ball to the side of the wall to Joey Haught (Brecksville, OH) who road a tackled and roofed a shot for the game winner with 59 seconds to go.

In the final it was a classic Providence versus URI game....albeit PC winning. Providence had advanced with a 1-0 win over Brown in their semi-final and were looking to retain the Ocean State Classic trophy that they had won a year earlier. We had a surprise visitor to the game when Houston Dynamo midfielder and former Rhody Ram Geoff Cameron showed up on the sidelines along with a massive amount of alumni support...too many to name as I don’t want to leave out on anyone.

The first half was played in surges with PC holding play for the first 10 minutes and then our boy’s gaining momentum and control for the latter half of the first period. Both teams created some good chances but neither could burst the net.

The second half was more of the same with the game played at a furious pace. Senior goalkeeper Peyton Warwick (Prairie Village, KS) came up with several key stops and holds on difficult balls and we created some great chances including a near diving header by Joey Haught from a Thomas LIndroos (Espoo, Finland) cross and a ball off the bar by Jamie Eckmayer on a nifty combination with Michael Casey. But in the end it was OT where PC netted the game winner on a rebound from an angle.

Well, classes begin tomorrow and there is no rest for the weary. We head South to Florida Gulf Coast University for a 7:00 pm Thursday evening match. We’ll return from FL for a couple of days then finish off the week with a game at Harvard University on Sunday September 17th at 3:30 pm. It has been a busy 2 weeks with the Hurricane Irene game postponement but we will be all the better for it down the road.

Take care and follow us on www.gorhody.com!

GO RAMS!
Coach O’C