U-M Blanks Detroit in Facility's First Home Night Game

Thursday, September 1

Ann Arbor, Mich.

7:00 PM

Michigan

1-0-0

Detroit

0-1-0

Detroit

Michigan

U-M Blanks Detroit in Facility's First Home Night Game

9/1/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

By: Joseph Conrad

Site: Ann Arbor, Mich. (U-M Soccer Field)
Score: Michigan 2, Detroit 0
Records: U-M (1-0), Detroit (0-1)
Next U-M Event: Sunday, Sept. 4 -- Denver at MSU/Radisson Classic (East Lansing, Mich.), 1:30 p.m.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan men's soccer team opened the season victoriously with a 2-0 win over Detroit on Thursday (Sept. 1) at the U-M Soccer Field. The Wolverines not only kicked off the regular season successfully, but they also won the very first night game at the U-M Soccer Field.

The Wolverines dominated the Titans from the opening of the game with their pressing defense. The Titans were only able to take three shots per half, and none of them were on goal. U-M showed its first spark of offense when freshman Jake Stacy (Grand Rapids, Mich./Forest Hills Central) dribbled past the defense and rifled the first shot on goal into the chest of goalkeeper Sasha Boskovic. Five minutes later, freshman Steve Bonnell (St. Clair Shores, Mich./Detroit Country Day) made his first mark on the game when he shot a header wide right. U-M continued to attack offensively, taking three more shots heading into intermission.

The first goal of U-M Soccer Field night-game history came when senior Trai Blanks (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer HS) found a loose ball during a scramble in the goal mouth. The scramble began when the ball was lofted into the air by a U-M player to keep the action alive on Detroit's side of the center circle, allowing Bonnell to win the ball with a header, forcing it to pop loose into the possession of Blanks, who shot into a wide-open net. Blanks took one more shot 1:00 before closing the half, but it went to the right after he had a one-on-one clear path to the goalie.

After intermission, the Titans made an attempt to turn up the offensive pressure by taking two shots in the opening minutes of the second half, but U-M's defense prevailed, allowing only one more shot for the remainder of the game. The Wolverines' defense came from outstanding offense, taking an astonishing 14 shots in the second half, with five of them being on goal.

The stars that shined this special night for U-M were Blanks and Bonnell. The two Wolverines combined for a total of eight shots, five shots on goal, and two goals. Blanks took back-to-back shots on goal at the 35:23 mark, after his first shot deflected off Boskovic's chest, allowing Blanks one more chance, only to shoot it into the goalie's hands. Bonnell got his chance to really shine when he closed out the scoring with a goal with 23:42 left in the game. Boskovic became vulnerable when he tried to cut off the right-side angle of sophomore Tolu Olowolafe (Portage, Mich./Portage Northern), allowing Olowolafe to cross-pass the ball to Bonnell for a score to the left.

The Wolverines will participate in the Michigan State Invitational over Labor Day weekend (Sept. 4-5) in East Lansing, Mich. U-M will open the tournament against Denver on Sunday (Sept. 4) at 1:30 p.m. and close the tournament against Massachusetts on Monday (Sept.5) at 2:30 p.m.

GAME SUMMARY

By Periods	1	2	F
Detroit	0	0	0
Michigan	1	1	2

Scoring, Time (Assist)
1st -- U-M, Trai Blanks, 37:22 (Unassisted)
2nd -- U-M, Steve Bonnell, 66:28 (Tolu Olowolafe)

Shots: U-M 20, Detroit 6
Saves: U-M 0 (Peter Dzubay), Detroit 6 (Sasha Boskovic)
Corner Kicks: U-M 8, Detroit 4
Fouls: U-M 17, Detroit 7
Cards: Detroit, Stephen Lagore, 25:07 (yellow); U-M, Chase Tennant, 41:26 (yellow); U-M, Adam Bruh, 51:28 (yellow); Detroit, Alex Kawalt, 64:31 (yellow)

QUOTES

Michigan Head Coach Steve Burns
On the progress from the first two exhibition games ... "This is a team that has a strong desire to be very good and they're taking in a lot of the lessons they're learning and processing them, and it makes the coaching staff feel proud, because you see they continue to improve with every game, and there was definite improvement with this game."

On how the defense played ... "We're going to take a lot of pride this season in how we defend as a team, so when you look at the defense, you always think about the back four or the back five players of the field. But this is a team that takes a lot of pride with everybody performing their role defensively. With that, it makes it a lot easier when you're defending your back third of the field if the midfielders are doing their job and if the forwards are doing their job, and what you saw tonight was a good team effort defensively."