WOLVES NEWS


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June 11, 1998

TIME FOR WOLVES TO TURN ITUP

By Jason York, New BritainHerald

NEW BRITAIN -- The ConnecticutWolves are at a crossroads. Facing the prospect of being out of the A-LeagueEastern Conference playoff race before midseason, the Wolves desperately needed more than apassive performance against the Toronto Lynx. Unfortunately, passive would be thenicest word to describe the Wolves' play. Kevin Holness and Phil Caporella scored goals tolead the Lynx past an uninspired Connecticut team, 2-0, before 2,002 at Veteran'sMemorial Stadium Thursday night.

Holness scored his goal in the39th minute and Caporella -- who came on as a substitute in the 71st minute -- scored withseven minutes remaining to pull Toronto (4-5, 12 points) into a fourth-place tie with theLong Island Rough Riders in the Northeast Division.

"We had some good chancestonight and we capitalized on them," Lynx coach Peter Pinizzitto said. "It's goodto get the win heading into the Worcester game on Saturday."

Connecticut (3-6, 3 points) onthe other hand is still searching for the right combination. However, patience is growingthin with both players and coaches.

"It was a poor performanceon our parts tonight and (Toronto) did what they had to do to win tonight," Wolvescoach Steve Stokoe said. "We created a couple of chances early tonight and then webecame our own worst enemy."

The Wolves all just seemed to beon a different page Thursday. They defended well and held possession in the midfield,but the ball seemed to find its way to a Toronto defender or midfielder every time theWolves got further forward.

Connecticut looked to be themore aggressive team early as Erik Barbieri had two better-than-average chances at givinghis team some much needed offensive punch. Defender Derek Sullivan found a streakingBarbieri up the right-side but Lynx goalkeeper Hubert Busby turned away the chance with a divingsave.

"After the first half, I'mnot really sure we created many chances," Barbieri said. "We didn't haveto much cohesiveness."

The Wolves just didn't have thelinks between the defense, midfield and forwards necessary for creating anymorethan the chance or two Barbieri created early in the first half.

"I just don't know what tosay," Wolves defender Dave Kelly said. "We're still defending OK andkeeping good midfield possession of the ball but we really didn't many scoring chancesafter the first half."

The "no scoringchances" theme seemed to develop with the quickness of a summer brush fire in California. The Wolves know that even the best of defensive team have breakdowns eventually and theyare going to have to score some goals. They don't, however, have a pure goal-scorer on theirroster.

"We don't have a big gun uptop," Wolves goalkeeper Chuck Martini said. "We need someone who canbreak down a defense."

Holness didn't exactly breakdown the Connecticut defense on the Lynx's first goal. Holness won the ball deep in the Wolvesdefensive third and found himself alone with Martini. He beat Martini to give theLynx the 1-0 advantage.

The second half saw neither teameager to produce anything of quality offensively until the later stages of thegame. Caporella -- whose fresh legs were the exact opposite of what the Wolves wanted tosee -- created a golden chance for Holness in the 82nd minute that would have been a goalexcept for a dynamite save by Martini. The Lynx and Caporella would not be denied longthough. Caporella, off a feed from Nick Vignsevic, scored an insurance tally just a minutelater to provide the final margin.

"What do you say?"Wolves midfielder Martin Tierney said. "We've gotten into this mess together, now wejust have to get out of it together; it's as simple as that."

Thursday, June 11th 1 2 ot so -F
Toronto Lynx 1 1 x x - 2
Connecticut Wolves 0 0 x x - 0

Players:
Toronto: H. Busby, F. Spadafina, R. Titus, D. Holmes, P.Sarantopoulos, B. Ashton, R. Golen, K. Holness, G. LaNotte (W. Giummarra-87), N. Vignevic, E.Thomas (P. Caporella-72)
Connecticut: C. Martini, M. McDermott, D. Kelly, D. Sullivan, C.Fairweather (J. Yunkin-46), M. Tierney, R. Levesque, I. Mor, S. Coxon, N. Bone(J. Vaughan-71), E. Barbieri

 h) 0*0*0* Ԍ

Goals:
Toronto: K. Holness (unassisted, 39th minute); P. Caporella (fromN. Vignevic, 83rd minute)
Connecticut: None

Cards:
Toronto: None
Connecticut: M. McDermott (Yellow, 72ndminute)

Shots:
Toronto: 11 (K. Holness-5)
Connecticut:5 (R. Levesque, E. Barbieri-2)

Saves:
Toronto: 2 (H. Busby-2)
Connecticut: 4 (C. Martini-4)

Fouls:
Toronto 5 (R. Golen-2)
Connecticut: 18 (S. Coxon-6)

Offsides: Toronto 2; Connecticut2
Corners: Toronto 2; Connecticut 3

Officials: C. Reed, R. Eddy, J.Shapiro, J. Kiusewski
Attendance: 2,002
Weather: 75 degrees, calm winds

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