By Chris Brown
A tie at the end of regulation play forced the U of L’s men’s soccer team into sudden death overtime against the Cincinnati Bearcats when the two unranked teams faced off in Cardinal Park last Wednesday night. Each team headed into the game with a win and a loss in regular-season play.
Cincinnati managed to organize its troops and took off early in the game, leading Louisville 2-0 at the half.
“I think we came out with a lot of jitters and insecurity in the first half and the score reflected that,” said U of L head coach Tony Colavecchia.
But the scene changed after half time when Colavecchia made some adjustments on the field. “We put Matt Neely in the back and he shored up our defense and gave us more security on the back line,” he said.
In his first game with the Cards, freshman Gerard Voutier scored off a cross from sophomore Frank Jonke to put the Cards on the board eight minutes into the second half.
Just seconds after Cincinnati pulled ahead 3-1 with another goal, Neely turned a pass from senior Tim Velten into the Cards’ second goal of the game and his second in his career with the Cards.
A shot by U of L senior Ryan Edwards off another cross from Jonke evened the score with 23 minutes left to play.
The Cardinals managed to hold Cincinnati through the rest of the second half.
But just 3:02 into the overtime battle, UC’s Tony Morelli fired a fatal shot from 25 yards out into the upper-left corner of the net, dropping Louisville to 1-2-0 for the season.
Even after his team’s heart-breaking 4-3 loss, senior Matt Neely still held his head high. “Tonight was a tough game,” he said, but later added, “Results will come.”
Colavecchia agreed, saying, “I thought that we were very dangerous in the second half. Cincinnati scored an unbelievable shot out of nowhere to win the game,” he added. “It was an unfortunate result because both teams left everything out there on the field.”
Still, the 5-foot-10, 168-pound backfielder, who has started in every
