The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Mercer
Blazers Play to 0-0 Tie With Mercer
9/1/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Sept. 1, 2006
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The UAB men's soccer team played to a scoreless tie Friday night with the Mercer Bears in the opening day of the UAB Classic. The final statistics favored the Blazers, but both teams had problems getting the ball in the net.
"I thought we played pretty well," commented Blazer head coach Mike Getman. "I was disappointed with the results. Teams are going to do this. They are going to sit back and play for ties. It's nothing new. But, we are going to have to finish some of the chances we created."
Overall, UAB out-shot the Bears, 8-7, including four shots on goal. The Blazers had multiple chances, but were unable to penetrate Mercer's goalkeeper, Roberto Cronenbold.
"I thought we had about 80 percent of the possessions," commented Getman. "I thought we created enough opportunity to certainly win the game. At the end of the day, we didn't get enough things on target and didn't make their keeper get enough saves."
The Blazers were led offensively by Carlo Shiavoni, Jerson Montiero, Jonah Stewart and Lukasz Kwapisz who each had a shot on goal. Montiero and Kwapisz had two shots total for the game, while Michael Biggs and Shane Elsner added one shot each to the Blazer total.
UAB goalkeeper Jeremy Drake tallied a pair of saves against the Bears. In total, Mercer had seven shots against UAB and two shots on goal. Omar Liendo and Shane Dubay racked up on shot-on-goal a piece for Mercer.
"Every other sport, you play until there is a winner," expressed Getman. "I don't think there is any doubt who would have eventually won. Tonight feels like a loss because we didn't get the win that we came for."
In earlier action on Friday, Wright State defeated Birmingham-Southern, 2-0, in the first game of the UAB Classic.
The final day of the tournament will be on Sunday, September 3 when Birmingham-Southern and Mercer tangle at 12 p.m. at West Campus Field. UAB will face Wright State in a 2:30 p.m. match following the first game.
