Oct. 17, 2001

Final Stats

Chicago, Ill. - It was an afternoon of peaks and valleys for UIC soccer junior Joe Morelli (Holly, Mich./Brother Rice) as he and his teammates hosted the Butler Bulldogs in Horizon League action at Flames Field Wednesday.

After scoring an own goal to put the Bulldogs ahead, 2-1, Morelli came back to bury the game-winner for the Flames with less than 10 minutes to play in the game, which UIC won 3-2. It was his first goal of the year and second of his career.

On the game-winner, Morelli worked the ball up the field and passed it off to rookie Patrick Grange (Albuquerque, NM/Albuquerque), who took it in deep to the left of the goal. Grange then placed a perfect cross over to Morelli, who headed it off the left post and into the goal.

"I have to give all the credit to Patrick (Grange)," Morelli said. "He put the ball right on my forehead. I really didn't have to do anything with it.

"I felt bad enough (about the own goal)," Morelli continued. "I just wanted to work as hard as I could after that and hopefully I could make up for it."

UIC (9-3-1, 3-0-1 Horizon League) came out quick to start the game and took the lead 1-0 at the 8:03 mark as Dennis King (Colona, Ill./United Township) headed in a Bruno Rasich (Lincolnwood, Ill./Niles West) crossing pass directly in front of the net.

The 24th- ranked Flames, however, were unable to maintain their momentum and were outplayed by Butler over the final 25 minutes of the first half.

The Bulldogs (5-7, 3-1 Horizon League) knotted the game at 1-1 in the 25th minute as a Flames' defensive miscue set up Nick Pantazi for an easy tap-in, his 10th goal of the season.

The own goal by Morelli put Butler ahead 2-1, but that lead would be short-lived. A Bulldogs handball in the box resulted in a UIC penalty kick, which Rasich connected on for his second goal of the season to tie the game at 2-2 and set up the Morelli heroics.

"We were real up and down today," Head Coach Sasha Begovic said. "We didn't play very well - we were up five minutes and then we'd be down for five minutes. It was a very tough game - we certainly had our hands full all day."

UIC goalie Jeff Kusiciel (Arlington Heights, Ill./Prospect) stopped five shots in the win, which was his ninth of the year. Grant Barrie took the loss for Butler despite stopping five shots on goal.

The Flames, who have now won 10 straight at home and are 9-0-1 in their last 10 games, return to league action on Sunday, Oct. 21, when they host the Wright State Raiders at 3:00 p.m. at Flames Field.