The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
DEPAUL*
UAB Scorches DePaul, Clinches Tourney Bye
11/6/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Nov. 6, 2004
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - UAB scored three and a half minutes into the game, three times in the first half and put away visiting DePaul Saturday night, 4-0, in the Blazers' regular season finale at West Campus Field. The victory clinched a No. 2 seed and important first-round bye in the upcoming Conference USA tournament next weekend in Louisville, Ky.
"This was an extremely important win for us tonight," UAB head coach Mike Getman said. "We secured the bye in the tournament, we sent our seniors off with a victory, we dominated the game from the outset and were able to rest a lot of guys and play a lot of others. You couldn't ask for a better performance out of our team in this situation."
UAB (11-6-0, 7-2-0 C-USA) finished the season with two straight wins over solid C-USA teams. Coming into the day, Getman's club had a chance to share the conference's regular season title with a win and a Memphis loss at East Carolina. The Tigers beat the Pirates, however, 4-0, to take the regular season crown outright.
Against DePaul, Jason McLaughlin scored his fourth goal in six games in the third minute as a goal kick from A.J. Robles was gathered by Lukasz Kwapisz and flipped forward to the striking McLaughlin and the rout was on. Shane Elsner scored a pair of goals in a five minute span late in the first half and Jerson Monteiro drove home a rebound from a corner kick in the 55th minute for his team-leading seventh goal of the year to finish the scoring.
A.J. Robles saved five Blue Demon offerings and was relived in the 69th minute by Melford James Jr. In total, seven players saw action off the bench, giving the front 11 needed rest in preparation for next week's league championships.
DePaul's John Kornfeld notched a pair of shots, both on goal. The Blue Demons fell to 3-14-3 overall and 1-7-1 in C-USA play.
The contest was the final regular season match at West Campus Field for seniors Jarbas Carlos and Rogerio Oliveira.
Game times for the Conference USA tournament will be announced Sunday after the Cincinnati-Marquette regular season league finale. The outcome of that contest will dictate seedings in the tournament. UAB's bye means the Blazers first action will be on Friday night against a Thursday quarterfinals winner.
