Oct. 22, 2004

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - Senior Sasha Gotsmanov (Woodbury, Minn.), the nation's leader in goals and points, scored two goals and had an assist as the University of Rhode Island men's soccer team downed La Salle 4-2 Friday to make head coach Ed Bradley the winningest coach in URI soccer history.

Sophomore Jeffrey Gonsalves (Markham, Ontario) also scored two goals and had an assist. Gonsalves now has nine goals and six assists for 24 points on the season, which ranks him second in the Atlantic 10 behind Gotsmanov.

The win was Bradley's 176th in 16 seasons at URI, passing former Rhody coach Geza Henni who had 175 career wins in 20 seasons. Bradley, a former All-Yankee Conference standout for the Rams, had already posted his 200th career victory on Oct. 3, also in Philadelphia against Saint Joseph's.

"It's been a lot of fun, hopefully there will be plenty of more wins and several more years," Bradley said. "Hopefully we can win an Atlantic 10 Championship this year and advance in the NCAAs."

The Providence, R.I. native now has a 176-126-21 record at URI and a 203-135-35 overall record, including three seasons as the head coach at Rhode Island College. He also spent 11 seasons as the head coach at Barrington (R.I.) High.

He has led the Rams to eight winning seasons in the last nine years, including six-straight. Under Bradley the Rams have won four Atlantic 10 regular season titles and four tournament championships, including last fall's, which gave Rhody its fifth NCAA appearance in the last nine years.

After having his six-game goal streak snapped Sunday against Dayton, Gotsmanov scored twice in the first half against La Salle on Friday to give him a NCAA-best 16 goals. Gotsmanov added an assist on a goal by Gonsalves for his sixth assist of the season and 38th point. He now has 32 career goals, which is seventh on the school's all-time list, and 81 career points, which is seventh on URI's all-time list.

The Rams (9-5-1, 4-2-1 Atlantic 10) took a 3-0 lead at the half on two goals by Gotsmanov and a goal by Gonsalves that came off a header from Gotsmanov. Gonsalves made it 4-0 in the 54th-minute off an assist from freshman Danleigh Borman (Cape Town, South Africa). La Salle (7-6-1, 3-4-0 Atlantic 10) would score two goals to cut the gap in half, but the Rams held on for the victory.

Rhody returns to action Sunday at Fordham at 1 p.m. before closing the regular season with five-straight home games.