Raging Rhinos escape with a slim victory
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.
"Back to Lynx menu">
. .
|