(09-13-06)
Box Score
West Haven, Conn. -- Guy-Roland Kpene scored a pair of goals to lead nationally-ranked #5 Dowling College to an East Coast Conference win over the University of New Haven on Wednesday afternoon at Robert B. Dodds Stadium. Tyler Smith scored the lone goal for UNH in the second half.
Dowling (5-0, 1-0 ECC), ranked fifth nationally in the latest NSCAA Division II poll, scored twice in rapid succession in the first half to put New Haven (2-4, 1-1) in a hole. Kpene chipped in a goal at the 14:39 mark and Morten Jensen followed with a long, hard shot to the lower right corner at 15:41 to give Dowling a cushion.
Kpene scored his second goal nearly three minutes into the second half when he had a one-on-one along the right side and pushed the ball to the lower left corner.
But to UNH's credit, they fought hard the entire second half and the game seemed very even for much of the period. Smith scored his fourth goal of the season at 58:08, collecting a loose ball in front of the net following a scramble and firing a hard liner to the lower left corner.
"Obviously the second half was much better than the first half for us," said UNH head coach Matt Verni. "They're a very dangerous opponent and if you open it up for 90 minutes you run the risk of giving up a lot of goals. But after going down 2-0, we wanted to open it back up, and we did create something (Smith's goal).
"In the end, I think the score reflects the game without a doubt," said Verni, "and against an opponent like that that's a result that's probably to be expected. But I don't think the stats will reflect the effort and quality of play that we did have in the second half. Jessey Fernandez was very good with the ball today, and James Hilaire made a lot of nice saves on some difficult shots. I also thought Paul Bocchino played well in the back against a very fast opponent."
Hilaire made 12 saves on the afternoon, including at least two diving stops on hard line drives.
UNH will play at the Merrimack Tournament this Saturday and Sunday, taking on Stonehill at 1:00 the first day and then playing the host school Sunday at 3:30.
