Gonzaga University
Washington
Men's Soccer Drops Dog Fight
9/1/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Sept. 1, 2004
SPOKANE, Wash. - The 2004 men's soccer season did not open the way Gonzaga University head coach Einar Thorarinsson may have envisioned it would.
The University of Washington scored on its first shot at 2:16, Gonzaga's John Palladino was ejected with a red card at 13:19 and the visiting Huskies rolled to a 3-0 season-opening victory Wednesday at Martin Field in front of 809 fans. Washington improved its all-time record against Gonzaga to 18-0-1 since the series began in 1981. The tie was a 2-2 overtime affair in 1999.
"It was disappointing. We didn't come out ready to play," Thorarinsson said of the opener.
The Huskies, ranked No. 21 by Soccer America in the pre-season poll, didn't waste any time taking control. Brett Hite took a long left-to-right cross from Mike Chabala and beat sophomore keeper Sean Sosnovec from the right wing just 2:16 seconds into the match. Chabala sent the cross from the midfield sideline deep to the right wing where Hite took controil, dribbled on net and scored to the near post.
Gonzaga's woes grew 13:19 into the match when sophomore midfielder John Palladino was called for a hard tackle on Chabala at midfield in front of the benches. He was issued a red card, putting the Bulldogs a man down for the remainder of the match.
"By the letter of the rule it was a red card violation. He came in with spikes up," Thorarinsson said. "But I didn't think he went through the body. I think it was a call that could have gone either way (yellow or red card). But we have to know better than to do something like that."
The ejection, according to Thorarinsson, drasticaly altered the match.
"You can't play a man down for 75 minutes against that caliber of a team," the 10-year Bulldog coach said. "But we couldn't sustain any attack on offense, either. We didn't give help support when it was needed on offense."
The Huskies, who outshot Gonzaga 21-7 for the match, took a 2-0 halftime lead when C.J. Klaas scored from the left side of the box at the 27:15 mark off a cross from Will Flanagan. The lone goal of the second half came from Spencer Schmidt, who punched a close, low shot past Sosnovec at 71:18.
Sosnovec transferred to Gonzaga this season after spending two years at DeAnza JC where he was a football tight end the past two seasons. He played high school soccer at Lincoln High in Portland, Ore., and has played soccer each of the past two summers.
"The first shot just got between him and the post. I think he might have thought the shot was going to go to the far post rather than the near post,": Thorarinsson said.
Sosnovec did come up with a point blank save off the foot of Brett Hite in the waning seconds of the first half, and Will Flanagan's rebound attempt went wide left. He was also up to the test in the second half when he saved a Klaas shot and then stopped the point-blank rebound attempt by Ely Allen.
Perhaps the best scoring opportunity for Gonzaga came near the 10-minute mark of the first half, Arni Pjetursson's shot saved by UW keeper Chris Eylander and Robert Anderson's rebound shot sailing high over the net.
The loss was the ninth straight for the Bulldogs over the past two seasons, the longest losing streak since the Bulldogs lost their first eight matches in 1993.
Gonzaga will return to action this Saturday and Monday at the Nike Invitational hosted by the University of Portland. The Bulldogs meet the University of Alabama-Birmingham on Saturday and Sacramento State University on Monday in a pair of noon matches at Merlo Field.
