July 21, 2006 USL Rochester Raging Rhinos vs Toronto Lynx (from Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Listless Rhinos play to a tie

Coach Calloway calls 1-1 deadlock 'completely unacceptable'

Jeff DiVeronica
Staff writer

(July 22, 2006) — The fireworks high above PAETEC Park probably weren't nearly as explosive as Rhinos coach Laurie Calloway in the locker room after Friday night's 1-1 tie against Toronto.

That's because his team squandered another late lead, allowing a last-place club to pull even in the 70th minute, and came away with a fourth draw in seven home matches (2-1-4).

If Rochester (7-2-7 overall, 28 points) keeps kissing its sister at home, it can kiss any chance of catching Montreal (9-2-5, 32 points) for the USL First Division regular-season title. Minnesota (3-8-5, 14 points) edged Montreal 2-1 Friday.

"It's completely unacceptable," said Calloway, whose third-place club was coming off last week's riveting 5-4 comeback win over Miami FC but turned in an uninspiring effort Friday in front of 9,232 fans.

"There's another team on the field. We're not just going to walk over them. Toronto beat (second-place) Vancouver, but we could easily have won the game if we had taken care of the ball."

The Rhinos, who went ahead in the 23rd minute on Johnny Menyongar's penalty kick, turned it over too much against an improved Toronto club that it beat 2-0 on May 13 in Canada. The Lynx are just 3-10-3 overall but are 3-1-1 in their past five matches.

Calloway also wasn't pleased with the lack of execution and urgency his team showed after Toronto tied it on Kevin Jeffrey's header, a redirect in front off Chris Williams' blast from the left flank. The Rhinos needed to go after the Lynx over the final 20 minutes, the way they did two weeks ago in a 2-1 home loss to Charleston.

But they didn't.

"We had too many guys out there playing below average. We didn't have enough playing above average to pick us up," said goalkeeper and team captain Scott Vallow, who needed to make eight saves as Toronto outshot the Rhinos 12-9.

Calloway said rookie Neil Dombrowski did a good job at defensive midfield distributing the ball after replacing veteran Tenywa Bonseu at halftime, but didn't think his club attacked smartly late.

"We didn't utilize the right side well enough with Rey (Martinez)," he said of the Cuban midfielder who replaced rookie Danny Kramer in the 66th minute.

"He's dangerous when he comes on." Toronto nearly took the lead in the 21st minute on Jamie Dodds' 19-yard blast, but Vallow showed why he was in Wednesday's USL All-Star Game with Dodds. Vallow dove to his right to tip the shot off the left post and wide.

Rochester got a gift from Toronto goalie Theo Zagar two minutes later. The ex-Rhino was whistled for a foul about 14 yards out after sliding to sweep the legs and ball from Aaran Lines. The midfielder from New Zealand set it all up by touching a short pass to himself around defender Andres Arango to put him one-on-one in the box with Zagar.

Menyongar left no doubt on the PK, hammering it inside the right post as Zagar guessed wrong.

The Rhinos had a couple of good looks to make it 2-0, but Dodds broke up a pass on the far post from Connally Edozien, who had dribbled past Zagar, to a sliding Bonseu in the 43rd minute.

"I thought we could have been up 3-0 at halftime," Vallow said.

Zagar (three saves) did a good job in the 60th minute coming off his line to close down Edozien with a slide tackle and also made a good kick save on Greg Howes' 25-yard rip in the 87th that looked to be on target.

"We started out sluggish instead of coming out with a bang," Lines said.

"We have to play much more compact on this field. We let them back in the game, possession-wise. If we go up 1-nil, then we need to play convincingly, play possession and then go up 2-nil and 3-nil and kill a game."

Instead, the Rhinos are killing their shot for a division title. They play an exhibition tonight at PAETEC vs. Sheffield Wednesday, then host ninth-place Seattle next Friday.

"It's a terrible result for us, especially at home against the bottom team in the league. These are points you have to have," Vallow said.

"It just wasn't good enough all over the field tonight and we're very, very dissatisfied."

JDIVERON@DemocratandChronicle.com

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