Oct. 18, 2009

Box Score

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - Gonzaga University defeated the University of San Francisco 2-0 in a West Coast Conference men's soccer match Sunday to propel the Bulldogs back into the upper division of the WCC chase.

The Bulldogs evened their overall record at 5-5-2 but, more importantly, raised its WCC mark to 2-3-0 for six points to tie USF for fourth place into the conference as the season nears the halfway point.

The University of San Diego is in the driver's seat at 5-0-0 and 15 points, while Saint Mary's College is second at 3-1-1 for 10 points. But after that there's a logjam with the University of Portland third at 2-2-1 for 7 points followed by Gonzaga and USF, with Loyola Marymount University and Santa Clara University 1-3-1 for 3 points.

"We played well," Gonzaga head coach Einar Thorarinsson said. "We had a lot of good balls and we responded. The defense played well and Scott (Barnum) played well in goal. We really needed him."

Barnum, who had six saves, recorded his third shutout of the season and the fifth of his career. He moved into a tie with Josh Fouts (1997) for seventh for single season saves and moved into sole possession of fourth on the career charts.

Gonzaga got on the scoreboard first when Ben Funkhouser scored his fourth goal of the season at 20:14, taking a feed from Tye Perdido and shooting to the upper corner from 16 yards to give the Bulldogs and Barnum all they would need. The assist was Perdido's second of the season and 10th career helper, the latter moving him into a three-way tie for 10th on the Gonzaga career list.

USF's Omar Elmasri received a red-card ejection in the final minute of the first half when he pulled down Perdido from behind outside the 18 after a lob was going to send the Gonzaga senior in on a breakaway.

Perdido scored the insurance goal at 77:14 when USF failed to clear a Gonzaga free kick and the ball came to Perdido in the six who put the point-blank shot past USF keeper Franco Carotenuto, who had four saves in the match.

"It was a bouncing ball. Either we were going to get to it or they were going to get the clear," Thorarinsson said of the opportunity.

USF had a 16-10 edge in shots.

"It was a good win. We had a solid game plan going in and for the most part we stuck to it," Thorarinsson said. "It gets us within reach of a couple of teams ahead of us. Now we have to take care of business against Portland this week."

Gonzaga has defeated USF in five of the last six meetings, including three straight at USF. The last USF home win over Gonzaga was a 2-1 verdict in 2006. With Sunday's win Gonzaga took an 11-10-1 lead in the tight overall series.

The Bulldogs will play a rare Wednesday match when the Pilots visit for a 2 p.m. contest. The re-match comes Sunday at 2:30 p.m. at Portland. The Pilots, ranked as high as 16th last week, dropped a 2-1 decision at USF last Friday in their only outing of the week.