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No. 4 Men's Soccer Blanks George Mason, 3-0, in home opener
Craig Hill picks up third shutout of 2008 season


DALLAS (SMU) - The SMU men's soccer team - ranked No. 4 in the country in the current National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) poll - scored the only goal it would need in the fourth minute Friday night and junior goalkeeper Craig Hill picked up his third shutout in five games as the Mustangs cruised to a 3-0 win over George Mason in the first round of the Prego's Express Italian Men's Soccer Invitational at Westcott Field.

Senior forward Manuel Mariel scored the game-winning goal in the fourth minute. Senior midfielder Gabe Arredondo dribbled to the corner and shook a defender to fire a crossing pass toward the goal, which GMU goalkeeper didn't handle cleanly. When the ball popped free, Mariel popped it into the back of the net from point-blank range.

The 1-0 margin held up until well into the second half, when senior forward Paulo da Silva - the reigning Conference USA Offensive Player of the Week - watched a long crossing pass from senior midfielder Jeff Harwell skip off a defender and bounce right to da Silva, who buried a long shot from about 22 yards out.

Freshman Diogo de Almeida finished off the scoring with his first collegiate goal. de Almeida pounced on a GMU turnover in the 81st minute and drilled a shot from about eight yards out to account for the final scoring.

The victory keeps the Ponies undefeated, with a record of 4-0-1, as they head into tomorrow's second-round Prego's Express Italian Men's Soccer Invitational matchup with Oakland, which improved to 5-0-0 on the season with a 1-0 victory Friday over No. 15 Tulsa in the Prego's Invitational's first game. Tulsa will face George Mason at 5 p.m. Saturday, followed at 7:30 by SMU against Oakland.

For a complete schedule and ticket information, log on to SMUMustangs.com or call 214-SMU-GAME.

(BE ADVISED: THE THREAT OF INCLEMENT WEATHER MEANS SATURDAY'S GAMES MIGHT BE MOVED TO AN ALTERNATE LOCATION. LOG ON TO SMUMustangs.com FOR UPDATES.)

Hell of a win tonight. Several impressive things tonight:

• Manuel Mariel is a stud. He's got great speed and created major headaches for the George Mason defense. In the past, Dane Saintus was the Ponies' only super-fast offensive threat — now we have more balanced speed up front, and that's going to lead to a ton of goals.
• Ryan Mirsky wore a Rip Hamilton mask tonight. Anyone know why? Didn't seem to matter much, as he roughed some people up. Love watching that guy.
• Craig Hill was great. Don't know if he made any saves, but you could hear him communicating with his defense all night. He's really quick and really loud, which is vital. He also knocked the crap out of a guy when punching a shot out of the crowd.
• Paulo da Silva is just awesome. Another goal tonight.
• Coming off a knee injury, Leone Cruz looked fantastic in his home debut.

Congratulations, Coach McClements (and staff) — still undefeated!

great job coach

Game dominated by SMU and never in doubt. Team looks very strong. We had good defense, good build up in the attack but a little disorganized in the offensive one-third of the field. A lot of speed, quickness and skill on this team.

Here are some photos that I took.

http://www.douglasfejer.com/2008/SMU/So ... index.html

I'll be running around a bit today. May be a while before I get them all up on my website.

Pretty exciting team. Have to wonder if SMU men's soccer is not the best ticket in town.

(Jessica Simpson may be attending the next match.)

Doug

wonderful photo, thanks.