Oct. 22, 2006

Box Score

KINGSTON, R.I. - The Rhode Island men's soccer team rallied from an early one-goal deficit to post a 2-1 overtime win over Massachusetts on Sunday afternoon, October 22. Junior Lukasz Tumicz (Bisztynek, Poland) scored his third game-winner of the season, 4:43 into overtime, to give the Rams their fourth consecutive conference victory. With the win, Rhody improves to 9-4-4 (6-1-0 A-10) while Massachusetts falls to 8-6-3 (2-4-1 A-10).

The Minutemen got on the board first, at the 18:53 mark, when the Rhody defense got tangled up in front of its own net. UMass' Michael Jenja took advantage of the disorganization and fed the ball to Prince Ofosu who beat URI's freshman goalkeeper Chris Pennock (Middlesborough, England) in a one-on-one. URI's redshirt senior defender Stephen Scalzo (Plymouth, Minn.) made a quick run across the goal line in an attempt clear the ball, but Ofosu's shot found the back of the net, giving the Minutemen a 1-0 advantage.

The Rams responded with a goal of their own 13 minutes later, when junior Dawid Badecki (Jelenia Gora, Poland) blasted a free kick past UMass keeper Zack Simmons and into the lower left corner of the net for the 1-1 equalizer. Badecki, who has either scored or assisted in each of URI's six A-10 wins, had the opportunity to put the Rams up 2-1 with just 6:22 left in the half, but his penalty shot to the left corner was stopped by a diving Simmons.

Rhody carried the momentum throughout the second half, both outshooting (12-4) and out-cornering (4-1) the Minutemen. Simmons was solid in net though, turning away each of URI's five shots of goal.

In overtime, senior Jeffrey Gonsalves (Markham, Ontario) took a ball down the right side of the box, where he crossed a pass to Tumicz, who sealed the URI victory his fifth goal of the season at the 94:43 mark. With the tally, Tumicz has now recorded either a goal or an assist in Rhody's last for games, and eight of the team's last nine contests.

In all, Rhode Island outshot Massachusetts, 21-10, and out-cornered the Minutemen by an 8-3 margin.

The Rams (9-4-4, 6-1-0 A-10) return to action on Friday, October 27, when they host Duquesne (10-5-1, 5-2-0 A-10) at 7:00 p.m.