Nov. 4, 2007

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KINGSTON, R.I. - Adam Howarth (Isle of Wight, England) tallied his first-ever collegiate goal as the Rhode Island men's soccer team shut down La Salle, 1-0, on Senior Day at the URI Soccer Complex. Sophomore goalkeeper Chris Pennock (Middlesborough, England) earned the win in goal for the Rams, picking up his fourth shutout of the season.

Prior to the start of the game, the Rams honored the nine members of the team playing in their final game at the URI Soccer Complex: Kevin Algozer (Northport, N.Y.), Dawid Badecki (Jelenia Gora, Poland), Callum Bissett (Pencaitland, Scotland), Danleigh Borman (Cape Town, South Africa), Geoffrey Cameron (Attleboro, Mass.), Adam Howarth (Isle of Wight, England), Steve Mellen (North Kingstown, R.I.), Stephen Scalzo (Plymouth, Minn.) and Lukasz Tumicz (Bisztynek, Poland).

"There's obviously a lot of emotion that goes into this game," said head coach John O'Connor. "This senior class is very talented and the guys themselves are just really, really special. They have accomplished so much together throughout their careers, so it was only fitting to see them come together and win their last game here on Senior Day."

Rhode Island nearly opened the scoring when Tumicz fired a shot that went off the crossbar in the 19th minute. Mellen then grabbed the rebound and took a shot of his own, which La Salle's Andrew Bernhard stopped with a diving save. Five minutes later, Bissett drilled a header on goal, but again, the crossbar prevented the Rams from finding the back of the net.

After the halftime break, Borman had a great look at what appeared to be an open net, but La Salle forward Jim Davis came up with a huge defensive play for the Explorers, booting away Borman's shot just before it could cross the line. Davis kept the Rams off the board again, clearing another Borman shot off the goal line in the 72nd minute.

With just over a minute remaining in regulation, Borman served a corner kick toward the front of the goal where Howarth was able to sneak the ball past Bernhard for the 1-0 victory.

"It was great to see Adam get that goal," added O'Connor. "Not only because his family is here, visiting from England, but because he's such an important player for us and doesn't always get the recognition he deserves because he isn't out there scoring goals."

For the game, URI outshot La Salle, 23-5, and held an 8-1 advantage in corner kicks.

The victory marked the fourth time this season that the Rams have scored the game-winner within the final ten minutes of play as Rhody also defeated Xavier (2-1) with 9:47 remaining, Dayton (2-1) with 2:51 left on the clock and Fordham (1-0) with 4:59 to go in regulation.

With the victory, Rhode Island improves to 7-7-2 (5-1-1 Atlantic 10) while La Salle drops to 5-10-1 (3-4-0 Atlantic 10).

The Rams return to action on Friday, Nov. 9, when the travel to Philadelphia for a 2 p.m. game at Temple.