Monday, May 28, 2001

Raging Rhinos escape with a slim victory

By MIKE KOREEN -- Toronto Sun

Toronto Lynx midfielder Brian Ashton could only shake his head in disbelief when he took a final look at the scoreboard.

Ashton felt his soccer team deserved top marks for effort, but the Lynx misfired on all of its scoring opportunities and lost 1-0 to the defending A-League champion Rochester Raging Rhinos before an announced crowd of 2,027 last night at Varsity Stadium.

"Last Saturday we played bad and won (1-0 over the Montreal Impact) and then (last night) we play good and lost," said Ashton, whose team was eliminated by the Rhinos in last season's semi-final playoff series.

"Not often in my five years here have we dominated Rochester like we did (last night). We probably had 70% of the possession. We should have won easy."

Lynx general manager/coach Peter Pinizzotto should consider extra shooting drills in coming practices.

Francisco Dos Santos, Toronto's top scorer last season, had a partial breakaway midway through the first half but fired a weak shot that didn't challenge Rhinos goalie Scott Vallow.

Lynx forward Aaron Benjamin, who entered the game in the 56th minute, was left uncovered in the penalty box in the dying minutes but put a header right of the post.

"When you have chances you have to finish," Pinizzotto said. "If you don't score in this league you're going to have problems."

The 1-0-1 Rhinos, outshot 19-12, caught the break they needed in the 49th minute.

Standing several yards outside the penalty box, Rhinos midfielder Lenin Steenkamp unleashed a left-footer that deflected off Lynx defender Marco Reda and bounced in off the fingertips of sprawling netminder Theo Zagar.

"I thought I had a chance at it (before it hit Reda)," Zagar said. "(Reda) apologized to me, but it wasn't his fault."

The 1-1 Lynx play host to the Connecticut Wolves tomorrow at 11:30 a.m.

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