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Rhinos move up USL ranks By Richard W. Kozak, Jr.  |
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The season long development of any team at any level in any sport can be an arduous task. Besides the massive practice and game schedule, there is attention to be paid to a multitude of varying concerns both large and small. Too much attention or lack of notice to any of these details can be a distraction to even the best of teams.
The Rochester Rhinos of the United Soccer League could have used “all of the above” to explain away the ups and downs of the 2008 season. From an off season that questioned the mere existence of the club, to a summer long push to respectability that bordered on pushing the team to its physical limits, the Rochester Rhinos may have learned a thing or two along the way.
Perhaps the best lesson the Rhinos may have learned this season is that a team can not change what has happened. A team cannot pay too much attention to the schedule ahead, and hard as anyone might try, no sports organization has yet to find a way to play more than one game at a time. It is the mastering of these lessons that the Rochester Rhinos have made a push into fourth place in the USL with a 2-0 blanking of the Atlanta Silverbacks at PAETEC Park.
In a season of streaks, the Rhinos pushed their current winning streak to two with a textbook dismantling of the struggling Silverbacks before a PAETEC party of 8,763. With seven teams making the post season and the Atlanta squad directly in front of them, a victory would go a long way to securing extra play dates in 2008.
The Rhinos caught the Silverbacks at the right time. The team is in the midst of a tough cross-country schedule, the coach is admitting to his club’s own weariness, and injury and other circumstances depleted the Atlanta roster on a nightly basis. Sound familiar?
Like a shark smelling blood, when the Rhinos learned that Atlanta’s leading scorer Mac Kandji would be on the sidelines, the black and white began a literal feeding frenzy on the visitors from the start of the match.
Like a heavyweight fighter, the Rhinos began a clinical dismantling of their foes from the south. Rochester controlled the pitch and flow of play and nearly hit the scoreboard at the game’s quarter hour when Johnny Menyongar nearly found the twine.
In the game’s 21st minute, the ageless Steve Guppy, a master of the set play, orchestrated the first Rochester tally. Guppy’s pinpoint direction forced the Atlanta goalie to come off his line in an awkward fashion to attempt to punch the ball in clearance. The ball serendipitously found Luke Kreamalmeyer who rocketed the ball just inside the “18”, off a Ross Smith and into the Silverbacks’ net for the 1-0 Rochester lead.
The shot seemed to be a handball, but sometimes it’s better to be lucky than, well….
The goal seemed to frazzle the Silverbacks and the Rhinos took full advantage of the opportunity afforded to them. Once again, “The Big Fish” Guppy placed a wonderful cross the top of a teammate’s head and once again the play resulted in a Rochester goal.
Guppy found the tenacious Tiger Fitzpatrick who jammed a diving header into the Atlanta goal for the 2-0 decider.
The Rhinos travel to Atlanta in a return match that will be of great importance to both teams playoff aspirations.
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