Men’s Soccer Set for River City Rumble

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The University of North Florida men's soccer team kicks off Atlantic Sun Conference play with a single match on Sunday, Oct. 3, at 7 p.m. against in-town rival Jacksonville at Hodges Stadium. The event is the first of the 2010-11 season in the SunTrust River City Rumble between UNF and JU.

The Ospreys enter the match with a 1-4-0 overall record, while the Dolphins are 5-3-1 on the year. UNF defeated Longwood 1-0 on Sept. 18 at Hodges Stadium for its first win of the season. North Florida's last three matches have all been decided by one goal.

UNF is 7-9-0 all-time against JU, but the Ospreys have won two of the last three meetings between the two schools. The match marks the first event this season in the SunTrust River City Rumble.

The SunTrust River City Rumble is a season-long series between Jacksonville's two Division I institutions – Jacksonville University and the University of North Florida. The UNF and JU battle annually for the “SunTrust Old Wooden Barrel,” which is awarded to the school with the most victories over the other during a school year. Each time the Ospreys and Dolphins face each other, the game will count toward the SunTrust River City Rumble standings.

In addition to the River City Rumble, the match is also the most recent installment of the Dennis Viollet Cup. Viollet was a striker for Manchester United in the 1950s and early 60s. He scored 178 goals in 291 games for United, ending his career as the all-time leading goal scorer in Manchester United history. Head coach Ray Bunch and Viollet coached together at the club level until 1990, when Viollet took the reins of the Jacksonville University Dolphins, where he stayed until 1995. The annual University of North Florida/Jacksonville University soccer match has been contested for the Viollet Cup since 2001.

Last season, UNF fell behind 1-0 in the first half, but used a pair of second half goals to claim a 2-1 victory over JU.

The Dolphins had the first opportunity to score as they attempted a shot, but it was deflected off of the goal post. The Ospreys missed an early opportunity to take the lead as Greg Crowell's header off of an Adam O'Neill corner kick was saved by the JU goalie. Jacksonville was the first team to score as Nedim Hrustic took a cross from Jonathan Jackson and put it just out of reach of UNF's goalie. Trailing 1-0, North Florida missed five crucial opportunities to tie the score before the half.

In the second half, UNF wasted little time knotting the score at 1-1. With just under five minutes off of the clock, Frank Dinzey crossed the ball to O'Neill whose shot at point blank range was deflected by the goalie. Peter Lauer collected the loose ball and put it in the middle of the net to tie the score at one goal each.

The Dolphins threatened with a pair of shots in the box, but both shots were side to the right by just inches. The Ospreys countered with a shot of their own by Crowell, but like JU's shots, the ball was inches to the right of the post.

With slightly over seven minutes to play in the match, Steven Lowenthal scored his first goal of the season to put the Ospreys ahead. Shareef Rajkumar crossed the ball from the left side and placed it right in the middle of the box for Lowenthal.

North Florida was able to keep the Dolphins offensive attack out of the goal and came away with the victory.

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