September 10, 2004

BLACKSBURG, Va. - The Virginia Tech Hokies claimed an early lead over the visiting James Madison Dukes, but suffered through a bad 13 minute stretch in the middle of the game, falling 3-1 in their first game of the Virginia Tech Classic on Sept. 10. The loss drops Tech to 2-2 and JMU improved to 3-0.

Tech opened the scoring in the 11^th minute when goalkeeper Chase Harrison booted a ball down the left flank to Bailey Allman. Allman caught the Dukes napping and dribbled unimpeded to the box. He placed the ball past JMU keeper Kevin Trapp and just inside the right post for the opening score.

JMU got on the board in the 39^th minute on a nice give-and-go exchange between Kurt Morsink and Mark Totten. Morsink gave the ball up to Totten who returned it with a nice touch to Morsink. Morsink raced past the defenders and beat Harrison to knot the score going into halftime.

Morsink burned Tech again in the 48^th minute to give the Dukes a 2-1 lead. JMU capped the scoring in the 52^nd minute when Frank D'Agostino took a feed from Morsink in traffic and poked it by Harrison.

The game was extremely physical as referees whistled 17 total fouls and handed out four yellow cards. JMU's Tristan Murray and Bobby Humphrey got cards for arguing and Totten received one for kicking the ball away from a Tech player before a Hokie free kick. Tech's Magnus Einarsson received a caution for a hard tackle of Morsink.

In the first game of the evening, West Virginia took a 1-0 lead in the 50^th minute of action after Aaron Pitchkalon found teammate Devon McTavish on the left side of the box less than two yards out. McTavish promptly put the ball in the back of the net past goalkeeper K.J. Sabotchick. The Mountaineers sustained the Flames offensive threats and recorded a 2-1 win.

Liberty tied the contest in the 59^th minute when Darryl Roberts found the back of the net off Kyle Cupid's service from 15 yards.

The Mountaineers responded with the game-winning goal with under three minutes of action left in the game when Don Stratford drilled a direct kick off the post bar and into the goal from 20 yards out.

At the end of the first half, both teams remained scoreless, with the Mountaineers tallying eight shots to the Flames' two. However, Liberty had three corner kicks to zero for West Virginia. Neither goalkeeper recorded a save in the half. In a foul-plagued half, the teams combined for 13 fouls in the first 45 minutes and one yellow card. The card went to WVU's Pitchkolan in the seventh minute of action.

For the game, WVU out-shot Liberty 16 to six. Sabotchick recorded four saves for the Flames while Nick Noble had one for the Mountaineers. The teams combined for 28 fouls and three yellow cards. In addition to Pitchkolan, teammate Greg Mansell earned one in the 60^th minute for tripping and Cupid received one for arguing in the 55^th minute for Liberty.

On Sunday, Liberty plays James Madison at 1 p.m. while West Virginia and Virginia Tech play at 3:30 p.m.