 Spencer Keys Men's Soccer's 3-2 Come Back Victory Over Rhode Island
Oct. 11, 2009
CINCINNATI - Freshman forward Luke Spencer scored the game-winner in overtime and assisted on another as the Xavier University men's soccer team came back to defeat Rhode Island by a 3-2 score on Sunday afternoon at the XU Soccer Complex in Cincinnati. With the win, Xavier improves to 2-6-1 on the year and 1-1-0 in Atlantic 10 play. URI slips to 3-7-3 overall, 0-2-0 in the loop. The Rams scored two second-half goals, the last coming when Gary Crooks took a feed from Domenic Petrarca and hit a shot past a diving Andre Bezerra and into the back of the net at the 67:09 mark. However, the Musketeers would not lie down as the team dominated the run of play for the remainder of the match. XU finally broke through when Ryan Gray found the back of the net at the 76-minute mark. Andy Dimbi made a few nifty moves to win space and then served the ball into the box. Gray was in a crowd but was able to win the ball and it a header past Chris Pennock. URI still held a one-goal lead though until El-Hadji Dieng made a big play. Kennedy Nakwa played a ball ahead to Spencer who redirected the ball to Dieng inside the box. The ball was bouncing off the turf but Dieng was able to take the ball out of the air and drill a shot into the upper corner on the nearside and knotted the match up with only 2:57 remaining. The same trio was involved in Xavier's game-winner. Dieng was on the far side and served a cross to the other side of the box, which found Nakwa. Nakwa touched the ball towards Spencer and the freshman was able to head the ball out of the air inside the near post and send the crowd of over 400 home happy. The Musketeers out-shot Rhode Island by a 19-to-14 count, including 13-to-7 in the second half. URI held a slight 7-to-6 edge in corner kicks. Bezerra, who earned his first collegiate win on Sunday, made three saves for the Musketeers while Pennock stopped two shots for URI. Xavier is back in action on Friday, October 16 when the team travels to Duquesne. Game time is set for 7 p.m. in Pittsburgh.
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