Oct. 31, 2004

Box Score

KINGSTON, R.I. - Senior Sasha Gotsmanov (Woodbury, Minn.) scored his nation-leading 19th goal of the season, but the No. 21 ranked University of Rhode Island men's soccer team lost to St. Bonaventure 2-1 Sunday at the URI Soccer Complex.

Despite out-shooting St. Bonaventure 25-10, the Rams dropped their second-straight game by a 2-1 score and dropped to 2-4 when ranked in the Top 25 this season. It was just the Rams third loss in regulation this season and their sixth loss out of seven setbacks that has come by one goal.

Rhode Island fell to 10-7-1 overall and 5-4-1 in the Atlantic 10. The Rams have one conference game remaining on Friday night when they host Massachusetts at the URI Soccer Complex. Rhody hosts in-state rival Brown in the regular-season finale on Sunday at 1 p.m. in a game that will televised live on Cox-3.

Rhode Island, which was 3:54 from taking over first-place in the Atlantic 10 on Friday night before giving up a late goal and then losing in overtime to Duquesne, has slid to sixth place in the conference. The Rams will clinch a berth in the Atlantic 10 Tournament with a victory over UMass on Friday, the same situation Rhody faced last season when they went on to win the Atlantic 10 Championship.

St. Bonaventure got on the scoreboard first Sunday when Kevin Omokhua took off on a breakaway and crossed to Jon Lopez, who found the back of the net for a 1-0 lead 12:39 into the game. That's how the score remained until the half, with Rhode Island out-shooting the Bonnies 9-6 over the first 45 minutes.

Gotsmanov evened things up just 2:32 into the second half when freshman Lukasz Tumicz (Bisztynek, Poland) crossed the ball and Gotsmanov slid in and pushed the ball into the back of the net for his 19th goal in 18 games this season. Gotsmanov leads the nation in total goals and total points (44). It was his 34th career goal, which has him fifth on the school's all-time list, and Gotsmanov moved into a tie for fifth on the URI all-time scoring list, with current Rhody assistant coach and former standout Gareth Elliott, with 85 points.

St. Bonaventure scored the game-winner when Lopez returned the favor to Omokhua, setting him up for his fifth goal of the season with 26:55 remaining.

The Rams continued to pepper the goal for the remainder of the game, but 6-foot-5 St. Bonaventure goalkeeper Jon Blanchard kept the Rams from tying the game. Blanchard finished the game with seven saves and Rhody keeper Dean Ruddy (Mt. Prospect, Ill.) had four saves.

The Rams, who out-shot St. Bonaventure 16-4 in the second half, had their best chance to score with 20 minutes remaining when senior Emerson Aquilera (Tulsa, Okla.) booted a shot that hit the right post and the rebound bounced to Tumicz, who fired a shot just over the crossbar.