Aug. 22, 2002

Florida Atlantic's men's soccer team started the preseason with a bang with a 5-1 win over the Croatian futbol team on Wednesday night. Kristoffer Aarskog recorded a hat trick to lead the Owls to five goals, four of which happened in the last 15 minutes of the game.

"Yesterday we practiced with the same team and there was a definite improvement from last night," said head coach Kos Donev. "But we have a long, long way to go to improve and get everything together. Defensively we did pretty decently, but not as a whole team. Individually we did great, but again; there still is some ways to improve."

Early on the team was attacking very aggressively, using the wings to cross the ball into the box consistently. FAU put a lot of pressure on the Croatian's initially with a goal by Bjorn Masson in the fifth minute of play. The junior forward from Iceland drove through the defense and around the goalie and wrapped the ball around the left post for the first goal of the game.

The defense held very strong, holding their ground near midfield and playing the offside ball excellent. The Croatian's were not able to get a shot off until the 20th minute of play when goalie Alex Figuero misplayed a ball at the edge of the left box. The defense was quick to swarm around their opponent and force him to take a quick shot that was wide of the goal.

In the 40th minute though Figuero made another costly mistake when the opposing team snuck by the defense for a one-on-one. The sophomore keeper attacked the ball and player forcing an interference call in the box for a penalty kick. The proceeding penalty kick was good, tying the score at one apiece.

Following the penalty, FAU was held scoreless until Aarskog scored the eventual game-winning goal fifteen minutes into the second half. His score was off a long corner ball sent into the box where FAU then sent a flurry of shots at the keeper, who made save after save at point blank range, until Kristoffer controlled the ball and waited until the goalie was out of range for the save to take the shot to make it 2-1.

Aarskog scored his second goal minutes later when a ricocheted ball was sent over the defensive hold into his possession. He had the goalie one-on-one, did a little wiggle move and pushed the ball just right of the keeper's hands for the goal.

"I didn't know he had that many. I know he had two goals in our practice yesterday and three tonight and hopefully that is going to be a confidence builder that he can take into the season," said Donev.

The game was put out of reach in the 35th minute when Aarskog put his final goal into the back of the net with a four on two.

Florida Atlantic University opens its regular season on the road in Wisconsin, August 30th. The Owls first home game will be versus Florida International at FAU field, September 19th at 7:00 pm.