Freshmen Jacob Talarman and Vegard Karlsen Score First Career Goals for the Dons
(San Francisco) – USF badly needed a result and got one against league-leading Portland on a wet and windy Friday night at Negoesco Stadium in a 2-2 West Coast Conference stalemate. The Dons (2-10-3, 0-6-2 WCC) dictated play for much of the match against the Pilots (8-2-5, 5-1-2 WCC) but could not break through for their first conference win of the season.
Freshman forward Jacob Talarman made his first career start memorable, scoring his inaugural tally in the Green and Gold in the sixth minute, volleying home a lobbed service by freshman midfielder Karl Kraft to the far post from 10 yards. Senior midfielder Bryan Burke made the initial pass on the scoring sequence.
Portland responded on a sensational goal by Steven Evans in the 20th minute. Evans took a feed from Ryan Luke and sent a missile into the upper corner, far post from 25 yards for the equalizer.
Jarad vanShaik gave Portland a 2-1 lead with his team-high seventh goal of the season off a controversial penalty kick in the 26th minute. At the time, there were only two officials present in the normal three-man crew with an assistant referee serving as the middle.
San Francisco found the equalizer in the 80th minute as freshman midfielder Vegard Karlsen scored his first career goal for the Dons off a penalty kick. The two teams battled to a standstill from there in the sixth overtime contest for the Dons in 2010.
"I think this was one of our better games on the year, especially in the first half" USF head coach Erik Visser said. "We created multiple opportunities. I think we were very unlucky especially on their second goal. I thought the team battled back well in the second half and deserved the tying goal. After all is said and done I think this is a game the team really deserved to win and with all the adversity and all the mishaps I give the team a lot of credit."
USF held a commanding 16-6 shot advantage, including a 9-2 margin in the first half. The Pilots scored on both of their attempts before intermission.
Freshman Jojo Vitale (1-1-1) collected the decision and made just one save on the night, while his counterpart Austin Guerrero (8-2-5) made six saves for the Pilots.
USF returns to action when it hosts Gonzaga on Halloween Sunday afternoon. Match time against the Bulldogs is set for 1:00 PM at Negoesco Stadium in a match broadcast live on USFDons.com courtesy of Yahoo Broadcast.
