2002 CUNYAC / BRINE Men's Soccer Final

Medgar Evers Makes History, Stuns CCNY

Ridgewood, NY -- Maybe fifth time is the charm, at least it should be for Medgar Evers. Despite consistently placing among the top teams in CUNYAC, the grand prize has eluded Medgar Evers College- until today. The Cougars came into the 2002 CUNY Athletic Conference / Brine Men's Soccer Championship with savvy, defeating CCNY the regular season champions, 4-0 at the Metropolitan Oval. In his fifth CUNY final in the past eleven years, head coach Stanley Harmon finally gets to hold the top prize. "It's long time coming," said Harmon, who will begin the school's first NCAA Tournament run. "We had the squad this year and there were no letdowns - once I have all my players together there aren't many schools that can beat us." Medgar Evers got on the board quickly in the second minute, when freshman Thomas Nelson (Brooklyn, NY) sent a free kick to sophomore forward Sekou Forbes (Brooklyn, NY) who chested the ball with his back to the net some 18 yards away, turned quickly and side volleyed it into the upper right corner, stunning all present with the lighting quick and awesome goal. The Cougars were far from done. In the 33rd minute, Forbes sent a beautiful cross from the left side to freshman Omar Gordon who one-timed the pass into the left corner - just like that it was 2-0 Cougars. The Cougars (12-7-1) further extended the lead to 3-0 when sophomore Jason Dryden (Brooklyn, NY) headed in a corner kick from Noel Watson (Brooklyn, NY) in the 41st minute. Despite creating chances and playing some attractive offensive soccer, the Beavers (12-3- 1) never managed to break the ice in this one. CCNY pushed forward from the 2nd minute when they fell behind 1-0 and sent the troops forward in the second half, but to no avail. Even sweeper Gary Byrne came out of the back to try to stimulate the offense, but to no avail. The Cougars wrapped up the scoring in the 89th minute when goalkeeper Ancil Steeple converted a penalty kick after Dryden was taken down in the box. Steeple also made nine saves to record his 5th shutout of the season. "We felt very confident after beating Tech in the semifinals," added Harmon, thus avenging an earlier 3-0 loss to City Tech. "That confidence will carry into the NCAAs where we have a great chance to move on and with a little luck we can go far." Medgar Evers struggled to balance work and school schedules of its players the entire season but put together a nice winning streak when it counted the most, posting four straight wins to wrap up the regular season. The Cougars will play in the NCAA Championship first round on Wednesday, November 13th at a site to be determined on Sunday night when the selections are announced. CCNY, who dropped their second straight CUNY title game, will seek a berth in the ECAC playoffs which will be announced on Monday.