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Emory Holds Off Citadel

Feb. 3, 2007

ATLANTA, GA With the continuance of fraternity rush, the Eagles managed to only meet only a few times over the course of this past week. The team's preparation for this afternoon's game against The Citadel included nothing more then a couple of conditioning sessions and just one actual on field practice. Additionally, many key players would be out including an injured Kevin Platt (Mountain Lakes, NJ/Mountain Lakes) a sick Jeremy Jonas (Ardsely, NY/Ardsley) and a suspended Curt Simmons (Wilmington DE/Tantall). These circumstances were evident in a sloppy game which Emory did manage to squeak out by a score of 11-9.

The Citadel, who Emory defeated last season 19-9 came into the game looking determined. After Michael Kowalczyk (River Forest, IL/Oak Park and River Forest) scored the first goal of the game off a feed from Tyler Sant (St. Louis, MO/Chaminade), the Bulldogs answered right back with a goal of their own to tie the score 1-1. From there Emory quickly caught onto the fact that The Citadel had apparently failed to put together an organized clear. Coach, Dave Reed instructed his attackers to ride especially hard and the Dogs has no answer.

Robert Nugent (River Forest IL/St. Ignatius) still hot off his seven goal performance at Alabama notched five on the day, making him the nation's leading scorer with 12 goals in two games.

Despite the spectacular performance on Nugent's behalf, himself and many other Emory players had trouble finding the back of the net at times. With a 5-2 lead to start the second half the Eagles failed to capitalize on numerous decent scoring opportunities. Some would say that Citadel keeper, Pat Rogers was performing strongly, but for the most part Emory was just shooting poorly.

The Eagles were unable to convert a second half goal until David Franklin (Jericho, NY/Jericho - Drew) got the ball while mismatched with a defensive short stick. "They had a shorty on Franklin a few times over the course game" noticed Assistant Coach, Mike Trader. "I knew he would score once we could get him the ball with space to dodge." Franklin's first goal of the season was complimented by three others in the third quarter; including Paul Goleb's (Rockland, MD/Walter Johnson) second on the day and numbers three and four for Nugent. However, the Bulldogs managed to produce three of their own in the third to make the score 9-5 going into the final period.

Nugent and Sant would both score early in the fourth but The Citadel then went on an unanswered four goal run to pull the score to 11-9. With additional sloppy play from the Emory offense, the Eagles were unable to maintain a solid possession and allowed the Dogs to capitalize in transition.

Fortunately, the blue and gold's victory was closed out by the defensive play of Ryan Covert (St. Louis, MO/Chaminade), Stephen Crump (Houston, TX/Lawrenceville), Evan Cropper (New York,NY/Trinity), John Seibert (Fort Lauderdale, FL/Pine Crest), and goaltender, David Laub (Pine Brook, NJ/Montville). Covert especially did a fantastic job of maintaining the attack and not allowing any additional scoring chances to arise. At the end of the game Coach Reed emphasized how he wasn't necessarily pleased, but urged his team to look past it toward tomorrow's contest at Tennessee-Chattanooga. "Hey it was really sloppy, but we'll take it, a win is a win," said Reed.

The Eagles are now 2-0 overall and in conference so far this season. Tomorrow's games against SELC affiliate member, UTC is scheduled to take place at 1 PM-CST in Chattanooga.