Oct. 5, 2004

Mother Nature must not be a fan of Florida Atlantic University's men's soccer team. After losing their opening two matches of the season to Hurricane Frances, the Owls (4-1, 1-0) saw two of their three games last week either cancelled or postponed due to bad weather. In the one game that did go ahead, Walter Yoder's double overtime goal gave the Owls a 4-3 victory over Jacksonville in the conference-opener for both teams.

Hopefully the skies will cooperate this week as the Owls host defending Atlantic Sun Conference champions UCF on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Oneonta State on Sunday at 11:30 a.m.

UCF, picked to repeat as champions in the A-Sun preseason poll, is off to a relatively slow start to the 2004 season by their standards. An opening road trip to Colorado saw the Knights (2-3-2, 1-0) tie Air Force 2-2 and lose to Denver 3-0. Two losses to Marshall and Butler then followed in the UCF/adidas Kick-Off Classic. FAU also played in the tournament, losing to Marshall but defeating Butler.

Despite out-shooting Howard 32-6, the Knights could only manage a 1-1 tie with the Bisons on September 17th. Two days later, a 3-1 decision over the Mastodons of IPFW gave UCF their first win of the season. They followed that victory up this past Saturday with a 1-0 victory over Stetson in the conference-opener for both teams.

Junior Billy Judino leads the Knights with four goals and nine points, while junior goalkeeper Ryan McIntosh is the current A-Sun Defensive Player-of-the-Week.

Last year saw UCF take both meetings against FAU, a 1-0 regular season win and a 3-1 victory in the A-Sun Championship game. The Knights lead the all-time series 15-7-1.

The Red Dragons of Oneonta State head to South Florida with a 4-6 record on the season. They will face Florida International in an Atlantic Soccer Conference match on Friday before taking on the Owls on Sunday morning in the first ever match between the two schools.

After losing nine starters from the 2003 team that went a respectable 10-2-6, Oneonta has struggled to find the back of the net this season, being shut out in five of their 10 games. Losses have come to Albany, Ohio State, Syracuse, Binghamton, Niagara and Marist while the Dragons have wins over Siena, Fordham, and New Jersey Tech to show for their efforts.

Freshman Daniel Stevens leads the Dragons with two goals and is tied with senior Jerry Manneh for the lead in points with four.

Admission for Friday night's game is $2 for adults and $1 for seniors/children while prices for Sunday's game are $4 for adults and $2 for senior/children. For more ticket information, call 866-FAU-OWLS.