UB Cruises past Caldwell College

By: Chris Hogan
Managing News Editor

Bridgeport men's soccer head coach Brian Quinn called Thursday night's game vs Caldwell College his team's best effort of the 2011 season as the Purple Knights won 6-0. The game featured balanced scoring up and down the lineup despite not having the services of forward's Patric Brundin and Markus Naglestad, who both missed the game due to minor injuries.

There were six different goal scorers in the game for Bridgeport and it started in the 15th minute when junior Arnold Hitoaliaj took a great pass from sophomore Danny Ruiz and buried it past Caldwell's Brian Agostini. Ruiz, would also score his first collegiate goal and tally another assist for a total of three points on the night. Other goal scorers for the Purple Knights were Lee Middleton, Andreas Blanke who also scored his first collegiate goal, Juan Galarza and Jon Artistizabal.

"It was a good performance and we knew this group [Caldwell] was a very dangerous team," Quinn said. "The guys were well aware of that and were super focused coming out the U-Mass Lowell game."

In addition to the balanced scoring, the bench play once again put on a solid performance as three players recorded at least a point, and contributed in ways to help the Purple Knights improve to 3-1 on the season. Over the past two games off the bench, Aristizabal has recorded two goals and one assist.

"We have a great bench and whoever steps out onto the field, will play well and have the confidence that we have [as a team] ," Ruiz said. "Everyone is here for a reason"

Another key factor was that UB outshot the Cougars 20 to 8 and eight different players had at least one shot on goal.

"We stayed consistent throughout the whole game like we did against U-Mass Lowell and our bench played well which was key," Goalkeeper Danny Hernandez said. "It was our best effort since we kept the ball moving and defensively we were aggressive and didn't give them anything."

On Saturday, the Purple Knights will travel to Mercy College, who are 3-1-1 and begin conference play. Last season, UB defeated the Mavericks 1-0 at Knights Field and have won the past three meetings between the two schools. Game time is set for 2:30 p.m..

"This [game] was our best overall effort and we gave more effort in the three games leading up to this but the quality didn't approach this," Quinn said. "It was a tremendous [performance tonight]."