August 31, 2001

Stats

San Luis Obispo, Calif. - Cal Poly's James Newton broke a scoreless deadlock six minutes into the second half and his teammates added three more goals in the final period to give the Mustangs a 4-1 victory over UIC in the season opener for both squads.

"We pretty much dominated all the way around, but just couldn't put the ball in the net," Head Coach Sasha Begovic said. "We made three stupid mistakes passing the ball back to our defenders and their forwards took it and scored. We just couldn't get anything going offensively - we had no luck tonight."

Newton scored his fifth career goal from 20 yards out off a pass from Matthew McNally as the Mustangs avenged a 3-2 overtime loss to the Flames a year ago in Chicago.

UIC, which compiled a 18-4-2 record last fall and made its second straight NCAA Tournament appearance, got its lone goal from rookie Patrick Grange (Albuquerque, NM/Albuquerque) in the 85th minute to avoid the shutout. The first-year midfield/forward notched his first collegiate goal on a direct free kick from 20 yards out.

But Cal Poly increased its speed in the second half and scored almost at will in the UC Santa Barbara Kappa Classic tournament game. After Newton's goal off the post, Barrymore Matthews scored on a 15-yard shot in the 72nd minute and Francisco Marmolejo upped the score two minutes later as he put one in from 10 yards out for a 3-0 Cal Poly lead.

"Cal Poly is much improved from last year," Begovic said. "They've added some transfers that have helped - they're much quicker than they were last year at our place."

Flames' goalie Jeff Kusiciel (Arlington Heights, Ill./Prospect) recorded three saves in his first collegiate start.

UIC, which had a total of four shots on goal in the outing, will face Cal-Santa Barbara on Sunday at 4:00 p.m. (CST) in the final action of the UCSB Kappa Klassic. The Gauchos were victorious Friday evening following a 3-0 win over Long Island.