Oct. 19, 2001

Box Score

DENVER - The University of Denver men's soccer team, playing its first home match in nearly three weeks, got a last minute goal from senior Michael Piserchio (Littleton, Colo.) to beat visiting UNLV 3-2 to win their first Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) game of the season Friday afternoon at Pioneer Field. With the win, Denver ended a two-match losing skid and stands at 7-4-3 overall, 1-2-0 in the MPSF. UNLV falls to 7-5-0, 2-1-0.

In a physical and penalty filled match, Denver outshot the Rebels 18-7 on the afternoon and finished with a 7-4 advantage on corner kicks. UNLV had three players earn red cards and automatic ejections in the second half, while Denver had two players earn the same fate. After Rebel defender Ben Hooker took out Pioneer forward Mike Stark (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) and earned a red card for the tackle, a fight ensued and UNLV goalkeeper Scott Winstead was ejected along with Denver midfielder Kevin Wilson (San Clemente, Calif.), both for fighting.

Just three minutes later, Denver got a breakaway and a Rebel defender took down Denver forward Matt Harrell (Littleton, Colo.) in the UNLV goal box. Piserchio was selected to take the penalty kick for the Pioneers and calmly beat new UNLV keeper Justin Dennis to his left as Dennis dove right. The game-winning goal came with just 1:30 remaining in the contest.

The first half saw Pioneer junior Nic Hartman (Littleton, Colo.) give Denver an early 1-0 lead when he gathered a loose ball and beat Winstead from the left side in the 14th minute. UNLV answered just seven minutes later when Frederick Kelly had a superb individual effort to get a shot off that beat a diving Parker Jarvis (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) to his right and hit the far post and bounced into the Denver net to tie the game at one goal apiece.

The Pioneers got on the board first in the second half as Hartman again came through for Denver. After a corner kick was headed toward the Rebel net by Wilson and stopped by Winstead, Wilson kicked the rebound toward Hartman and he put the loose ball in the net to give Denver a 2-1 lead. Again the Rebels would answer, as Tyler Turchi took a cross from Ryan Cariss and beat Jarvis with a hard shot to knot the game at 2-2.

"This was just an extremely physical game," Denver head coach Chad Ashton said. "You never want to see a game turn to that but our guys hung in there when we were down a man and our defense kept us in it. Piserchio was just calm under pressure and that's why we had him take the late PK. It's good to get our first conference win."

Denver is next in action this Sunday, Oct. 21 when they take on MPSF foe New Mexico at 1:00 p.m. at Pioneer Field.