New
York, NY - The No. 2 seeded City College Beavers (9-4-2) and the No. 5 seeded Hunter Hawks (5-11-3)
will meet for the 2003 City University of New York Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Championship after both teams
came up with semifinal victories this afternoon at College of Staten Island. Hunter upset top-seeded College of Staten
Island, 2-1, in the opener and City disposed of No. 6 seeded York, 4-1, in the second semifinal. The championship
game will be played at 1:00 pm. next Saturday at College of Staten Island.
Freshman forward Jean Guedez (Astoria, NY) scored with just 2:14 remaining in regulation to give Hunter a thrilling,
2-1, upset victory over College of Staten Island (13-2-2). Guedez collected a deflected ball and was able to dribble
past one defender and sneak a low grounder past CSI sophomore keeper Valon Osmani
(Staten Island, NY), who
was out of position. The game-winner came just minutes after Hawks' senior goalie
Daniel Djura (Ridgewood,
NY)made a spectacular save to rob CSI midfielder Andres Salas (Staten Island, NY) of a go-ahead goal in the 83rd
minute of action. Djura made a tremendous reaction play as he was able to push Salas's header, which appeared to be
heading for the lower right corner of the net, out of harms way. CSI opened the scoring just three minutes into the
contest as junior forward Marwan Amer (New York, NY) scored on a direct kick. Hunter answered in the 12th
minute as freshman forward Vojdan Rosoklij (Demarest, NJ) took advantage of a defensive miscue and beat a charging
Osmani from five yards out.
"I told the team that today's game would not be a pretty one,” said Hawks' head coach Ivan Matteoni.
"It just came
down to which team wanted this victory more. Today, I think we were that team. Today's goal scorers (Guedez and
Rosoklij) have missed numerous games this year with injuries, but today we were finally at full strength and all of the
pieces to the puzzle were in place.”
In the second game of the afternoon, City scored three goals in the first thirty minutes of action to take complete control
of the match and defeated York (6-7-2), 4-1. Freshman forward Vinceslas Colas (Brooklyn, NY) opened the scoring
in the 16th minute after receiving a well-executed touch pass from classmate Richar Lopez
(Queens, NY). Colas set
up the Beavers next tally, heading a goal kick up the field to a streaking Douey Wright
(Cornwall, NY), who beat York
keeper Damion Bhoorasingh (Jamaica, West Indies), who had charged out of the net. Sophomore
Juan Gomez
(Manhattan, NY) made it 3-0, as he was credited with a goal off a deflection following a Beavers' corner kick. Wright
scored City's final goal on a header in the 69th minute. York got on the scoreboard in the 71st minute as sophomore
Ryan Reid (Jamaica, West Indies) headed in a Craius Bartley (Jamaica, West Indies) cross.
"We played very well today,” said City head coach Osborne Carter. "We wanted to put them away early, and we were
able to do that. It was a total team effort.”
