October 3, 2008

RAMS SET TO HOST HOFSTRA AND “YMCA NIGHT” ON SATURDAY
VCU thrashed the Pride, 5-1, last season
Live Stats
Game Notes

RICHMOND, Va. – Just last year, the Virginia Commonwealth University men’s soccer team sat at 1-4 in conference play and looked to have a tough road ahead of it if it were to make to the CAA Tournament. A dominant 5-1 home victory over Hofstra ignited the Rams to six straight wins and the third seed in the tournament.

That same Hofstra squad returns to VCU’s Sports Backers Stadium this Saturday evening as the two teams will take to the pitch in a 7 p.m. contest.

It will also be YMCA night at Sports Backers with all YMCA members who show proper ID getting in for just $2 and all youth soccer players wearing their jerseys getting in for free.

The Rams enter the contest with an overall mark of 4-4-0 and a 0-1-0 record in CAA play, while Hofstra holds a 1-5-2 overall record and a 0-0-1 mark in conference action.

Both squads are looking for their first conference victories of 2008 as the Black and Gold dropped a tough, physical road contest to George Mason 2-1 and the Pride battled to a 2-2 tie in its conference opener.

Junior Jorit Loehr (Bremen, Germany) led the offensive attack against the Pride last year finding the back of the net on two occasions and assisting on two other goals for a total of six points.

This year, the Rams have taken a much more balanced approach to the scoring with eight different players notching a goal in the eight games thus far.

Loehr and seniors Gerson Dos Santos (Sao Paulo, Brazil) and David Rosenbaum (Washington, D.C.) (right) are all tied for the team lead with three goals apiece.

VCU is widely known for its suffocating defense led by the German tandem of Dirk Dittrich (Stuttgart, Germany) and Michael Denkewitz (Bremen, Germany).

Senior netminder Andrew Dykstra (Woodbridge, Va.) continues to be outstanding between the pipes as he earned CAA Player of the Week honors after his stellar eight-save performance against the University of Virginia on September 13th.

The two schools have met a total of seven times since the 2002 season with the Black and Gold holding a 4-2-1 edge in the all-time series.