Oct. 26, 2001
Final Stats
Chicago, Ill. - The UIC soccer team played its final regular-season home outing of the 2001 campaign and, as is tradition, paid tribute to its four seniors - Jay DeMerit (Green Bay, Wis./Bay Port), Kevin Brady (Elgin, Ill./St. Charles), Jay Lindgren (St. Charles, Ill./St. Charles) and Brett Wienke (St. Charles, Ill./St. Charles) - during the halftime ceremonies.
How fitting then that DeMerit put in the game-winning goal as the Flames picked up a 3-1 victory over the Detroit Titans Friday afternoon.
After Detroit scored the game's first goal just 6:06 into the match, UIC came back with three unanswered goals to improve to 10-4-1 for the year and 4-1-1 in Horizon League action. The Titans dropped to 6-6-4 overall and 1-4-1 in league play.
Wienke, in his first start of the year, assisted on UIC's first goal of the contest as he fed a beautiful pass ahead to a breaking Jake Stasko (New Lenox, Ill./Lincoln-Way), who got past the defense and chipped in the ball over Detroit goalie Anthony Santilli in the 13th minute.
After settling on a 1-1 tie at the halftime break, the Flames took the lead for good nearly 15 minutes into the final period. Kurt Albertson (North Platte, Neb./North Platte) worked the ball down low and crossed a pass over to DeMerit, who hooked his shot into the left corner of the goal for his second score of the year.
"I just made the run because we were having some trouble scoring and I tried to do something with the ball," DeMerit said. "If that's the last time we play here, it's a good way to end it."
UIC, which outshot Detroit 30-10, got an insurance goal from Dennis King (Colona, Ill./United Township) in the 71st minute. King, who fired off a season-high nine shots in the win, regained the team's scoring lead with the goal as he has tallied nine goals and six assists for 24 points this year.
Goalkeeper Jeff Kusiciel (Arlington Heights, Ill./Prospect) stopped two shots on goal in the victory, which was his 10th of the year.
"It's nice to get back on the winning streak," Head Coach Sasha Begovic said. "We played very well today - we looked very fresh.
"I can't say enough about these seniors," Begovic continued. "They're just good guys on the field, off the field, all around."
UIC plays its final regular-season outing next Saturday, Nov. 3, at UW-Milwaukee, with the Horizon League title still to be decided. The Panthers are currently in first place with a 4-0 record, but have outings with Wright State (Oct. 26), Butler (Oct. 28) and UIC (Nov. 3) still on its slate.
