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Bulls Suffer Knockout Punch

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By NICK CARBONI, Tribune correspondent

Published: December 3, 2007

STORRS, Conn. - It wasn't the warmest welcome home for University of South Florida men's soccer coach George Kiefer.

On a bitterly cold New England day, when the temperature was 21 degrees at kickoff and hovered around 25 for much of the match, the Bulls' season ended with a 5-0 loss to No. 3 Connecticut in the third round of the NCAA tournament.

Kiefer, wrapping up his sixth season as USF's coach, played under Huskies coach Ray Reid at Southern Connecticut and assisted him at Southern and UConn before taking the helm in Tampa in 2002.

The Bulls (14-6-2) were overmatched by the Huskies' powerful offensive attack and heavy defensive pressure. It was the third time UConn (20-2-1) defeated USF this season, beating the Bulls 2-1 and 2-0 previously.

O'Brian White, UConn's star forward and the nation's leading scorer, had a hat trick.

"You don't have to be a great coach to realize you've got to stop O'Brian," Kiefer said. "He's a good, good player."

White opened the scoring in the second minute, turning around a Mike Pezza touch pass from 15 yards out. He added a second in the 22nd minute after Pezza lined a ball into the box, where White easily headed the ball past goalkeeper Diego Restrepo.

"They have some good attacking players," Bulls defender Yohance Marshall said. "We lapsed for a while and they punished us."

The Huskies wasted no time in the second half, scoring just over a minute in on an Akeem Priestly strike from the top of the box. White scored his 23{+r}{+d} goal of the season in the 60{+t}{+h} minute on a 32-yard boot into the upper-right corner, assisted by Toni Stahl.

With that score, White broke the UConn single-season goal record. Joseph Morrone set the mark of 22 in 1979.

Chukwudi Chijindu finished the scoring with 15 minute to go, hitting a left-footed shot from the right side.

The Bulls had trouble penetrating a tough Huskies defense, led by two-time reigning Big East Defensive Player of the Year Julius James.

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