2008 Woodie Awards
Men's soccer on the offensive
Richard Voit
Issue date: 10/4/04 Section: Sports
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The 2-0 win over the Ozarks Sept. 25 pushed the Comets' conference record to 2-0-1 and ended UTD's season-long offensive frustration on its home turf.
Senior forward Petar Tomov put the Comets in front with a header in the 15th minute, and UTD held on for its first home win of the year, adding an insurance goal on a converted penalty kick by senior forward Ali Morshedi before halftime.
Senior midfielder Philip Pizzuro picked up his first assist of the year and freshman goalkeeper Kevin Atnip recorded eight saves.
"Our goalkeeping and defending have carried us so far. We're getting more players healthy, and we're looking to our attacking side to step up and take some pressure off our defenders," Head Coach Jack Peel said.
The Comets' match the day before against Austin College followed a very familiar script as UTD pounced on a 2-0 lead, only to watch it evaporate in the second half.
Knotted after 90 minutes of regulation, the game went through two overtime periods with neither team able to punch in the golden goal.
Though UTD avoided the loss column, Peel said he was not entirely satisfied by the result.
"You're up 2-0 on a team and we had several opportunities to go three up. It's odd but 2-0 is one of the toughest leads in soccer to defend. We didn't convert those chances and they got back in it," he said.
Tomov and freshman midfielder Rory Rahn each scored, and Morshedi and senior defender Joey Martinez were credited with assists.
Morshedi and Tomov combined for 14 of the Comets' 34 shots, but a strong performance by Austin College goalie Nathan Long - and some help from the crossbar - deflated any other scoring chances.
"We have a lot of new players on the team and part of (the late game struggles) early on was we made substitutions to try players at new positions," Peel said.
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