Tuesday, October 2, 2001

Soccer looks to rebound from loosing to three ranked teams
By Dan Smith
Skiff Staff

After playing three ranked opponents and going 0-3, the TCU men’s soccer team is ready to move forward.

“What’s done is done,” associate head coach Blake Amos said. “Our goal is to win some more games and get to the conference championship.”

The last three teams the Frogs (2-5-1, Conference USA 1-1) have played — Wisconsin, Southern Methodist and Saint Louis — have a combined record of 19-1-1.

TCU lost 4-0 to No. 3 Saint Louis (6-0-0, Conference USA 2-0) Saturday.

The Frogs struggled to produce shots once again. In front of a crowd of 4,088 at Robert R. Hermann Stadium, the Frogs held in tight the first half, clinging onto a scoreless tie at halftime.

Key defensive efforts by junior goalkeeper Mike Lahoud and junior defenseman Davis Bland helped the Frogs stay in contention, Amos said.

“We had a good chance to sneak a goal in,” senior midfielder Andy Gray said. “We knew we could play with them.”

The second half turned into a different story for the Frogs, when Saint Louis had an offensive surge in the second half, scoring three goals in 11 minutes.

In the 56th minute, midfielder Marty Tappel passed a long ball to forward Brad Davis scoring the first goal for the Billikens. Later in the second half, the flood gates opened when the Saint Louis forward trio of, Dipsy Selowane, Jack Jewsbery and Nick Walls put the game out of reach by scoring three goals.

“We had 11 bad minutes,” Amos said. “We lost our concentration in one segment of the game and it cost us.”

On the offensive side, the Frogs were out shot 21-6, forcing the Saint Louis defense to make four saves as TCU fell 4-0.

“We were very disappointed,” Gray said. “We had played well and knew the game was ours to win or lose.”

The Frogs will get their chance to move on against Charlotte (2-4-2, C-USA 1-2-1) 1 p.m. Sunday at Garvey-Rosenthal Soccer Stadium.

Even though it is early in the season, both TCU and Charlotte teams need wins to compete in the conference championship in November.

“This is a very important game for both teams,” Amos said. “This is definitely a game we will need to win”

Dan Smith
d.r.smith@student.tcu.edu