Nashville 1-4 Rochester
June 6, 1982 — Hale Stadium (Nashville, Tenn.)
Scoring Summary
ROCH — Ernie Buriano 19′
NASH — Goran Meskovic (missed penalty) 26′
ROCH — Ernie Buriano 28′
ROCH — Alex Vayman 30′
ROCH — John Martello 37′
NASH — Godwin Iwelumo (penalty) 89′
Diamonds Roughed Up By Flash; Just 803 View Sixth Loss In Row
(Nashville Tennessean, 06.07.82)
By John Lewis Pitts
NASHVILLE — Who says the fast break is only for basketball?
Not the Rochester Flash soccer team.
The Flash lived up to their name in last night’s American Soccer League match with the Nashville Diamonds, flashing past Diamonds defenders on their way to a 4-1 victory over the struggling hosts.
It was the sixth consecutive loss for the Diamonds, now 1-6 overall. Rochester improved its record to 1-1-1 with the easy win.
A crowd of 803 was on hand for the game. The Diamonds have been unable to draw more than 2,600 for their three Sunday appearances this season at Tennessee State University’s 16,000-seat Hale Stadium.
Nashville coach Hector Guevara juggled his lineup before last night’s contest, still trying to find both scoring punch and defensive consistency. The Diamonds last night fielded their seventh different lineup since the start of the season.
“We’ve been playing pretty well until the opponent gets their first goal against us,” Guevara lamented last night. “It seems that, after they get on the scoreboard against us, we just have a letdown … I guess it’s due to inexperience.”
The Diamonds rely heavily on an “offsides trap” defense that, when it’s working correctly thwarts the other team’s attempts to penetrate the Nashville defense by setting up an offsides call by the officials, but when it isn’t working …
“They burned themselves on that trap defense tonight,” Rochester coach Dan Lalka said afterwards. “We took good advantage of their mistakes. Of course, it didn’t help them that they had to play back-to-back games either. They looked pretty tired out there.”
Nashville had dropped a 2-0 decision to Charlotte on Saturday.
“Sometimes I’d look out there and it would just be me, the ball and them,” Nashville goalie Brien McInerney said. “We thought they were offsides, but the officials wouldn’t call it. Suddenly our guys would drop off looking for the call and I’d be facing two or three of them alone,” added McInerney, who made his second start of the season last night.
At least the weather at TSU was better than last Sunday, when the Diamonds kicked off against the Oklahoma City Slickers at 3:35 and sweltered in 90-degree heat. The sight of Nashville players collapsing to the ground at game’s end forced the management to a later starting time.
Last night, it was the Rochester squad, not the weather, that was red-hot.
Ernie Buriano scored the first two goals of the evening for the Flash, connecting once in the 19th minute then coming back to score again in the 28th minute. In between, Nashville’s Goran Meskovic faced a penalty kick in a one-on-one situation with Rochester goalie Nick Owcharuk, who made a perfect save in the 26th minute.
It took Rochester less than two more minutes to make it 3-0, Alex Vayman scoring at 29:30 off the fast break. John Martello scored at 36:30 to wrap up the scoring for the visitors.
In the second half, Rochester continued to pressure the Diamonds, while avoiding the kinds of defensive breakdowns that might have allowed the Nashville squad to rally from such a lopsided deficit.
Nashville’s Godwin Iwelumo scored on a penalty kick with less than two minutes remaining in the contest to avert the Diamonds’ second consecutive shutout.
The Diamonds out-shot the Flash 15-12 in the match. Nashville goalie McInerney was credited with seven saves while Owcharuk had three saves for Rochester.
A 16-under team from the Mufreesboro Soccer Club defeated their rivals from the Hendersonville Soccer League 2-1 in a preliminary contest.
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