Sept. 19, 2008
Seattle, WA - George John scored from 10 yards out on a header off a free kick from the corner 86:32 into Friday night's match to give the University of Washington a 1-0 men's soccer victory over Cal State Fullerton in the Husky Fever Classic.
The Huskies improved to 3-3 while the Titans fell to 2-5. Washington will host New Mexico on Sunday while the Titans will draw Portland. The Lobos and Pilots played to a 1-1 tie earlier Friday.
John's goal beat CSF goalkeeper Kevin Puder, who had made 3 saves. Rylan Hawkins made 4 saves to get the shutout for the Huskies, who outshot the Titans by an 11-10 margin with each team getting four corner kicks.
"I am very proud of the boys' effort tonight," said CSF Head Coach Bob Ammann. "After a couple close calls to start the game, we really settled in and had the better chances until the set piece that they scored on. It was a very tight game and tight games usually come down to special moments. Unfortunately, they had the special moment with 3 minutes to go in the match and we didn't have the time to answer.
"Our defending and pressure was excellent and really was the reason that we had the better of the ball and created a lot of number up attacks. We still need to make better decisions in the final third, which I think really was the major factor and ultimately decided the outcome.
"Losing is never fun or easy to deal with, but if we continue to play the way we did tonight we will be in a great spot once league starts."