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USSF D-2 Rochester Rhinos

Rhinos Lose in Montreal, 2-0

August 27, 2010 - U.S. Soccer Federation D-2 (USSF D-2)
Rochester Rhinos News Release


MONTREAL, Que - The Rochester Rhinos took their league best six game winning streak - their best since 1999 - into Montreal on Friday night. Leading the season series 2-0-1 the club looked to go unbeaten against the Impact for the first time.

Montreal opened the scoring 18 seconds into the match as Leonardo DiLorenzo sent a ball into the box from 25 yards. Ali Gerba - coming off a hat-trick in his last match - managed to find some space between the Rhinos defense to get a foot on from six yards out, redirecting the ball past Neal Kiston to give the Impact a 1-0 lead.

Later in the half Philippe Billy sent a great cross into the box that posed problems for the Rhino defense but Kitson charged hard out of his net to punch the ball out of danger. The 18th minute saw Kitson deny DiLorenzo from six yards in front of the net. Despite falling behind early the Rhinos gained control of play and would develop a quality opportunity in the 22nd minute when Jonathan Greenfield labeled a free kick on goal which required Montreal netminder Matt Jordan to be sharp to punch it out of harm's way.

With three minutes remaining in the first stanza Rochester's Isaac Kissi's header was nearly good enough but Jordan punched the ball out of danger. With minutes remaining in the first half Tony Donatelli sent Eduardo Sebrango on a run inside the box where Sebrango, with Kitson beat, fired the shot a yard wide of the net.

Rochester began the second half applying pressure that dominated play for much of the final 45 minutes. Rochester's Jamie Franks did well to find Isaac Kissi early on but the pass was knocked away by Nevio Pizzolitto. Kissi again nearly connected on a header off another corner but Jordan was up to the challenge. The best chance the Rhinos created came when they picked up their pressure heading into the 70th minute of play when Kissi broke free and corralled an Andrew Hoxie pass. The two strikers nearly continued their run of stellar play as Kissi beat Jordan only to watch his shot ring off the goalpost. Kissi's rebound rolled toward the feet of Ryan Heinsbut Hicham Aboubou cleared it free.

Following a restart in Rochester territory that resulted when Tyler Bellamy was whistled for taking Gerba down, Kitson again came out hard to clear a shot away from the Rochester net. Kitson denied several Impact players at point blank range to keep the Rhinos within reach until Gerba struck again. This time the game-clincher came with just nine minutes left in the match to make it 2-0.

The Rhinos will be off following their loss until Saturday, September 17 when they take on the Tampa Bay Rowdies from Marina Auto Stadium at 7:00 p.m.

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U.S. Soccer Federation D-2 Stories from August 27, 2010


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