Oct. 19, 2000

Box Score

Chicago, Ill. - The UIC soccer team moved into first place in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference Thursday night with a thrilling 4-3 victory over crosstown nemesis, Loyola.

UIC, which is 4-1-1 in the MCC, will wrap the MCC regular-season on Sunday as it heads to Dayton, Ohio, to meet up with the Wright State Raiders. A victory would clinch the Flames' second consecutive regular-season title.

Tonight's crosstown battle with Loyola was everything a showdown between city rivals should be. In the scrappy game, the Ramblers struck first blood less than four minutes in as Brian Contreras found himself all alone at the top of the box and he blasted a shot past UIC keeper Chris Jamal.

The Flames, however, drew even at 1-1 in the 24th minute as Greg Chrisman and Eric Lukin set up Jakob Stasko for his ninth goal of the season.

After settling on a 1-1 tie at the halftime break, Loyola found the net in the 54th minute to take a 2-1 lead, but it wouldn't be enough as UIC struck for three unanswered goals less than seven minutes apart for a 4-2 lead.

Jay DeMerit scored his first goal of the season in the 69th minute as a wild scramble in front of the net resulted in a pair of DeMerit shots, with the second one getting by Loyola goalie Tim Caprez.

Bruno Rasich followed suit and put in his first goal of the year just over three minutes later to up UIC's lead to 3-2 and Steve Collins rounded out the Flames' goal scorers as he buried his fourth goal of the year in the 76th minute.

The win improves UIC's record to 11-3-2 overall while it was the Flames' fifth straight victory against the Ramblers. Loyola falls to 8-7-1 for the year.

Following Sunday's action against Wright State, UIC will wrap up the regular-season at home next Thursday, October 26, against Western Illinois. It will be Senior Day and the Flames will pay tribute to its seven seniors - Ibrahim Atef, Greg Chrisman, Nick Dudziak, Chris Jamal, Eric Lukin, Ranko Tutulugdzija and Jeff Zych.