The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
UNC Greensboro-UAB LaQuinta Classic
UNC Greensboro Upsets No. 23 Blazers In UAB Classic
9/16/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Sept. 16, 2005
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - UNC Greensboro overcame a 1-0 UAB lead with three unanswered, second half goals Friday night and the Spartans upset No. 23 UAB, 3-1, at West Campus Field. UNCG (3-2) joined Birmingham-Southern as day one winners in the 2005 UAB Classic. BSC downed Evansville, 4-1, in the opener.
Randi Patterson and Jamie Carlson scored goals for UNC Greensboro, which began the season ranked No. 13 in the country but dropped out of the NSCAA Coaches Poll after a loss to rival UNC Wilmington. The game-winner for the Spartans, however, came on a UAB own goal in the 55th minute as a Thomas Campbell cross deflected past UAB goalkeeper A.J. Robles.
"Obviously they are a good team and I thought they played very well," UAB head coach Mike Getman said. "We're young in the back and continue to make mistakes in the back. Two of their three goals were mistakes from us. The third one was a pretty good play by them and a nice goal. But good teams put you under pressure and unfortunately sometimes players make mistakes when they're under pressure."
Sandy Gbandi put UAB (4-1) ahead in the 34th minute when he drove a Jason McLaughlin pass beyond UNCG's Jay Benfield. The Blazers took their 1-0 lead to the break. Patterson scored from a Scott Jones pass in the 52nd minute to tie the match. Jones found Jamie Carlson in the 77th minute to make it 3-1 after the own goal had given the Spartans the lead for good.
"I thought it was a good match that really could have gone either way," Getman added. "Certainly we created enough chances to win the game. We missed some open goal opportunities that we weren't on target. We hit the post once when it was 2-1. We had plenty of chances to tie and we didn't. We didn't finish tonight and when we made a couple of mistakes, it cost us."
Robles withstood 26 UNCG shots, but only seven of which that were on goal. UAB had five of its 19 strikes between the posts. The match was physical throughout as a total of 38 fouls and seven yellow cards were issued.
Birmingham-Southern 4, Evansville 1
In the opening match of the UAB Classic, Birmingham-Southern got a goal and an assist from both Thimo Langner and Karim Deitz and two assists from countryman Martin Zaluk as the German trio led the Panthers to a 4-1 victory over Evansville. The Purple Aces (1-3-1) responded to a Gino Cozzolino goal in the 47th minute of play with a strike from Robbie Roate one minute later, but BSC (3-2) edged a head on Floreal Pedrazo's tally in the 65th.
Birmingham-Southern out-shot Evansville 18-8 and Panther goalkeeper Joe Nasco tallied three saves.
BSC will meet UNC Greensboro at noon on Sunday in the third match of the 2005 UAB Classic. The host Blazers will return to action against Evansville at 2:30 p.m. CT at West Campus Field. The winner of the tournament will be determined by win-loss record with ties broken by goal differential. An 11-member all-tournament team will be selected by the coaches as well.
