Oregon State
Oral Roberts
Beavers remain unbeaten
September 03, 2000 | Men's Soccer
Sept. 3, 2000
TULSA, Okla. - Matt Olsen paced Oregon State's attack with a goal and an assist as the Beavers blanked Oral Roberts 3-0 in non-league men's soccer Sunday afternoon at the ORU Soccer Complex. OSU (2-0-0 overall, 0-0-0 Pacific-10) has now opened with wins in its first two games for the second straight season, it marks the first time ever that Oregon State has opened 2-0-0 in back-to-back years.
"We're extremely excited about how the entire team has come together - especially our defensive effort," said second-year OSU head coach Dana Taylor. "We got great play out of our midfield and great finishing up front. We still need to work on some areas of our game that need to be fine-tuned, but we're looking forward to being at home and we're happy to come home 2-0."
Oregon State, which had won 2-1 at Tulsa on Friday, now hosts the OSU/Diadora Men's Soccer Classic next weekend. OSU's Lorenz Field at Valley Stadium will be the site of five games in three days.
The Beaver men will open their tournament against Illinois-Chicago on Friday at 4 p.m., that matchup follows a 2 p.m. non-league game between the OSU women and Gonzaga. UIC has most of its starters back from a team that made the NCAA Tourmanent last season.
On Saturday, Oregon State's men will face Sacramento State at 2 p.m. in tournament play. On Sunday, UIC plays Sacramento State at noon to finish the men's tournament after the OSU women face Denver at 10 a.m. in a non-league game.
At Oral Roberts (0-1-0), Oregon State wasted little time in taking the lead against a team that won the Mid-Continental Conference a year ago and reached the NCAA Tournament. Olsen scored in just the game's fourth minute off an assist from Justin Kirk to put the Beavers in front 1-0, making a back-post run and one-timing the ball hard past ORU's goalkeeper.
The goalkeeping of Mark Muleady helped the Beavers hold the lead into the second half. Muleady, a freshman making his first start for Oregon State, had four saves as he posted the shutout.
After intermission, OSU widened its lead to 2-0 when Jesse Servin scored off Olsen's assist in the 57th minute. Josh Elbaum crossed the ball inside, Kirk then delivered a ball to the back post that Olsen knocked back across the goal mouth and Servin drove it into the net.
The Beavers tacked on their final score in the final minute of play when James Albert. Elbaum started the play by chipping the ball downfield to Albert, who flicked it through to Close, and Close stepped up to knock it past the keeper.
For the second time in three days, the Beavers had to adapt to temperatures around 105 degrees.
"We were really at a disadvantage playing in that environment, coming from a cooler climate," Taylor said. "It was a big difference in both games for us to adjust to that. But we felt that today this team put it all together from the back all the way through the front."
OREGON STATE 3, ORAL ROBERTS 0
Score by halves:
Oregon State 1 2 - 3 Oral Roberts 0 0 - 0Scoring:
OSU-Matt Olsen (assist by Matt Olsen), 56:54. OSU-James Albert), 89:09.
Summary:
SHOTS: Oregon State 17, Oral Roberts 9. CORNER KICKS: Oregon State 5, Oral Roberts 5. SAVES: Oregon State 4, Oral Roberts 5. FOULS: Oregon State 21, Oral Roberts 18.
