Nashville 1-3 Rochester
August 1, 1982 — Brentwood Academy Eagle Field (Brentwood, Tenn.)
Scoring Summary
ROCH — Michaelle Lacevic 9′
ROCH — Ernie Buriano (Ian Martin) 37′
ROCH — Ian Martin 72′
NASH — David Strecker 84′
Flash Hands Another Loss To Diamonds
(Nashville Tennessean, 08.02.82)
By John Lewis Pitts
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. — The summer session of soccer’s School of Hard Knocks continued for the Nashville Diamonds last night, with familiar results.
The visiting “instructors” from Rochester rolled up a 3-1 victory over the inexperienced Diamonds, whose American Soccer League record dipped to 2-16-3 with the defeat. Rochester is now 6-10-2.
A crowd of 734 was on hand at the Brentwood Academy field for the match, the smallest turnout in the three games since the Diamonds departed their original home at Tennessee State University.
It was a frustrating night for the Nashville squad, which has shown flashes of improvement since moving to their new home field two weeks ago.
“We’re just not finishing what we start on offense,” observed Dave Strecker, who scored his team’s only goal of the night with less than seven minutes left in the 90-minute match. “It’s a matter of inexperience, I guess, but we get near the goal and we don’t seem to know what to do next.”
Even loyal Diamonds fans were left groaning by some of the team’s misplays, particularly in the first half when several offensive thrusts fizzled in a play of tangled feet and bad kicks near the Flash’s goal.
“We’re just not being aggressive enough in front of goal,” said Strecker, a University of Akron graduate who will be Nashville’s only entry in the upcoming ASL All-Star game in Rochester, N.Y. “We’ve got to get the killer instinct out there.”
Rochester’s Michaelle Lacevic put the visiting Flash on the scoreboard at 8:56 with an unassisted goal. Teammate Ernie Buriano made the score 2-0 at the 36:18 mark on a perfectly-timed assist pass from midfield teammate Ian Martin.
Martin settled the matter completely at the 71:26 mark, finding Diamonds goalie Brien McInerney too far out of the net. A pair of his Nashville teammates stood hopelessly behind their netminder as Martin drove the ball home from the penalty box.
An injury to the Diamonds’ Morrese Green delayed the game in the 82nd minute, and Nashville was facing a 10-on-11 situation when Doug Johaningmeyer’s inbounds pass found Strecker — and Strecker found the goal.
“It was a typical Strecker move … he just sizzled the ball in there,” team captain Mac Garrigan said afterwards.
Strecker was quick to give credit to Johaningmeyer, making the first appearance for the team. The goal goes into the books as an unassisted score, however.
“It was just a smart move … Juan Yepez broke one way to take the pressure off of David, and there he was with a great shot,” Johaningmeyer explained with a shrug.
Both teams managed 16 shots in the contest, with McInerney getting six saves for the losers. Dave Combs, a 22-year-old newcomer making his second start for the Flash, made seven stops.
Nashville’s next contest is an exhibition match against the Georgia Generals on Wednesday night in Kingsport, Tenn. The team’s next regular-season match is a trip to Carolina on Friday and the next home game is Aug. 13 against Oklahoma City.
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