University of North Florida
UCF
UCF squeaks past UNF
9/25/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Sept. 25, 2005
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The University of North Florida men's soccer team dropped its third straight match when the Ospreys were topped 3-1 by in-state rival UCF on Sunday night at UNF Soccer Field.
The Ospreys (0-5-1) were paced by freshman forward Shareef Rajkumar. The Pensacola, Fla., native tallied UNF's lone goal of the match, while also leading the squad with three shots, including two shots on goal.
"Shareef played well," UNF head coach Ray Bunch said. "He made a play on the ball to score the goal and had a couple more chances during the match. I believe with some more experience he puts one of those or maybe even both of those shots in the goal."
Senior Terry Peak, sophomores Mark Sergio, Martin Pettersson, Martin Schuhte and freshmen Matt Williams and Linus Johannson each recorded a shot. Johannson, Pettersson and Williams also each tallied a shot on goal.
UCF (5-2-0) was led by senior Billy Judino's five shots, three of which were on goal. The Golden Knights had seven other players tally shots in the win.
The Golden Knights got on the board first when junior midfielder Alejandro Gessen netted a ball at the 35:41 mark of the match to give UCF a 1-0 lead.
The Golden Knights stretched their lead to two goals in the 43rd minute when freshman Jermaine Walters headed a Mark Wong pass past a diving Michael Frost.
The Ospreys climbed back into the match with a goal of their own at the 48:06 mark of play, when Rajkumar fired the ball through traffic and just out of UCF goalkeeper Ryan McIntosh's reach to cut the Golden Knights' lead to 2-1.
UCF closed out that scoring in the 77th minute of the match when Judino converted a Gessen pass into a goal to give the Golden Knights the 3-1 win.
Frost tallied six saves in 90 minutes in goal for UNF. The loss drops the Sydney, Australia, native's record to 0-5-1 on the season.
McIntosh played all 90 minutes for UCF and earned the win.
"We had our chances," Bunch said. "We're still just a couple of players short. Depth is hurting us right now. We were in that match, but they just kept tossing guys at us and eventually pulled away a bit."
UNF will be back in action on Thursday when it plays host to Atlantic Sun Conference-rival Gardner-Webb. The match will mark the first A-Sun match for the Ospreys since joining the conference and is set to begin at 4:30 p.m. at UNF Soccer Stadium.
