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#11/12 Men's Soccer Quells #2/6 Case Western Reserve in UAA Opener

09/29/07

In a battle of two of the top sides in Division III men's soccer, senior All-American Jeritt Thayer produced the only tally of the contest to give New York University a 1-0 victory over Case Western Reserve University on a sunny Saturday afternoon at Manhattan College's Gaelic Field in Riverdale, NY.

Ranked #11 by d3kicks.com and #12 in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA)/adidas National Rankings, NYU (8-1-1) extended its undefeated streak to eight matches (7-0-1). The Spartans (8-1), ranked #2 by the NSCAA/adidas and #6 by d3kicks.com, suffered their first setback of the season in the University Athletic Association (UAA) opener for both teams.

Case Western Reserve was the preseason selection to win the UAA, while NYU was the second-place choice in a poll of league coaches.

"We've got such a great group of guys," Thayer said. "That's a great squad over there in Case. We played as a team and got the result."

The game's only goal came at 17:06, and started when Thayer called for the ball during a full sprint up the left side. Junior back Devin Freeman-Roche answered with a deftly placed long ball. Thayer collected it about 20 yards from the goal, dribbled briefly and fired a rocket off his left foot into the top right corner of the net for his ninth goal of the season.

"I saw the defense moving up, and it's a great opportunity for a midfielder," Thayer said. "It was a great ball from Devin."

Said NYU head coach Joe Behan: "That was a superb ball from Devin. Jeritt cracked it home with a left peg. I thought Jeritt played a very smart game."

Eventually, the Violets entered the locker room ahead 1-0 as the Spartans thwarted a handful of scoring opportunities.

In the second half, it was all about the Violets holding up against relentless pressure from Case Western Reserve.

The Spartans' best chances came in the 74th minute following a wild flurry featuring four shots. Three of them were stopped short of the goal line by the Violet backline of Freeman-Roche and seniors Nick Palmer and Matthew Tier. Junior Kevin Bigart, Case's third leading scorer with three goals coming into the match, blasted two of the shots -- one was cleared by Freeman-Roche, while the other sailed over the crossbar.

Senior midfielder Matthew Ramirez cleared a potential game-tying goal off the backline after a corner kick by Case Western Reserve sophomore Brian Evans in the 87th minute.

"It's never going to go your way for 90 minutes," Behan said. "We talked before the game about our capabilities of getting in against them early. But, Case Western put a lot of pressure on us in the second half. A couple of close calls, but we held out. I think we were tenacious."

Both goalkeepers played solidly. NYU junior Chris Wright made three saves to preserve his fourth shutout and extend NYU's scoreless streak to 507:43 -- just 63:18 shy of the school record of 571:01 set in 2005.

NYU owned a 15-11 edge on shots, including 11-3 in the first half.

"We just play great team defense," Palmer observed, "And, everybody's willpower helped us get through. We said coming in there was no way this team was going to score today, and they didn't."

NYU returns to action Saturday, Oct. 6, when it travels to UAA rival the University of Rochester for a 5 p.m. match. The Violets won last year's meeting 2-1 at Pier 40 in Manhattan.