Columbia University
LONG ISLAND
Men's Soccer Tops Long Island, 1-0, For Second Straight Win
9/24/2010 7:12:00 PM | Men's Soccer
NEW YORK -- Sophomore Will Stamatis tallied his first goal of the season less than a minute after the halftime break as the Columbia University men's soccer team picked up its second shutout of the year, 1-0, over Long Island at Columbia Soccer Stadium on Friday. The victory was also the second straight for the Lions, who improve to 3-4-1 on the year.
Stamatis took a wonderful through ball from first-year David Najem and finished his chance from 18 yards out under the left arm of a sprawling Blackbird keeper in the 46th minute. Junior Alexander Aurrichio earned the shutout in goal for the Lions with one save.
After LIU's Elliot Kane rifled the first two shots of the match wide, Columbia dominated the category 16-2, and created scoring chance after scoring chance. The first such opportunity came in the 22nd minute as junior Francois Anderson found Najem streaking far post. Anderson put the ball right on the money and the first-year got a head on it but Long Island goalie Adam Janssen came up with the save to keep the match scoreless.
A pair of first-years would hook up for the next chance in the 29th minute. Najem found classmate Henning Sauerbier near the edge of the box. Sauerbier turned and fired far post but his bending shot went just wide.
A foul on the Lions gave the Blackbirds a nice chance from about 35 yards out, but Rommel Forde's strike was hauled in by Aurrichio. Columbia would go on to take the final five shots of the stanza following the shot by Forde but had a pair blocked by LIU defenders and another denied by Janssen.
The lone goal of the match came right after the start of the second half. With Long Island taking the kickoff, Columbia did well to regain possessioin quickly. Sophomore Quentin Grigsby corraled the ball and passed to Najem, who put Stamatis in one-on-one with the goalkeeper.
Janssen came off his line to try to cut down the angle, but Stamatis was quick to the punch and slid a shot perfectly underneath the Canadian goalkeeper just in the nick of time. The ball trickled into the back of the net to give the Lions a 1-0 lead.
Grigsby and Stamatis nearly teamed up for a second goal minutes later, as Grigsby one-touched a pass to Stamatis on the right side. The New Jersey native drilled a shot far post that went just wide.
In the 73rd minute, sophomore Nick Scott had an opportunity to increase the Columbia lead off a nice play by senior Bayo Adafin. Adafin did a nifty spin move toward the middle of the field and chipped a perfect pass to Scott on the run. The Englishman fired a blast but it was right at Janssen who made the save.
From there, the Columbia defensive backline of juniors Nick Faber, Ronnie Shaban, Jesse Vella and senior Hayden Johns stood up every run the Blackbirds made to preserve the shutout.
Stamatis led the Lions with four shots, two of which were on goal, while Kane had three for LIU.
Columbia will go for its third straight victory on Tuesday, Sept. 28 against Delaware at Columbia Soccer Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
