Seton Hall University
Army
MSOC Beats Army with 2nd Half PK's
8/28/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Junior forward Max Garcia (Jersey City, N.J.) created the first scoring chance for the Pirates when he found space in the box after cutting through the Army defense. He was taken down from behind by Army defender Cameron Niccum, and senior midfielder Adriano Gabriele (North Babylon, N.Y.) converted the penalty kick by beating Winston Boldt to the left side.
The goal was the third of Gabriele's career and his second-career game-winning strike. Coincidentally his other career game-winning score also came off a penalty kick in a win over army, last year in a 1-0 win at West Point.
Oddly enough, the victory over the Black Knights is just the second in Seton Hall's history, as the Pirates are now 2-23-2 all-time against the service academy. SHU trailed the all-time series with Army 0-23-2 before last season's win, but that was the first meeting between the two programs in 26 seasons.
Garcia was also responsible for creating the second penalty kick opportunity, only this time he also took and made the penalty kick. As Garcia ran down a long pass toward the right corner of the box, Boldt ran out to cut him off and was called for a foul on a takedown.
Garcia scored on a similar shot to Gabriele's, a bullet to the left side, to register his first goal of the season and the eighth of his career.
Seton Hall redshirt senior goalkeeper Michael Kuzan (Union, N.J.) made a pair of great saves late in the second half to preserve the shutout. The first came on a shot from Josh Koeppe in the 66th minute that he fired from the left side of the goal box that Kuzan deflected out of play.
On a nearly an identical play 13 minutes later Army's Sean Mogan sent a shot on net from about 10-yards out, but again Kuzan had the answer, batting the ball out of harm's way.
Kuzan finished the game with four saves to earn his second-career shutout and the first since 2010.
Seton Hall created a majority of the scoring opportunities in the opening half, but neither team really generated much offensive momentum through 45 minutes of play.
The Black Knights nearly got on the scoreboard just 1:25 into the action as Kuzan came out of the box to cut off a pass to Koeppe. Kuzan was a step late heading off the attempt leaving Koeppe with an empty net, but his shot was wide right.
The Pirates' best chance for a first-half score came off the foot of Garcia who blasted a rocket shot from 18-yards out just right of the net in the 35th minute.
On Garcia's shot sophomore defender Mateusz Brela (Kielce, Poland) found him with a crisp pass down the seem that he easily controlled before squaring up to the net, but he was unable to finish and the score remained tied heading into the break.
Seton Hall (1-1) returns to action on Friday, Aug. 31, when it hosts Princeton University at Owen T. Carroll Field at 7 p.m.
