Mar. 20th, 2002 - Georgia Tech defeats Tennessee in Knoxville 8-2
Tennessee has posted easy wins the past four years versus Georgia Tech and tallied a lot of goals in the process. But Georgia Tech appeared ready this time around, especially on defense.
In the first quarter, sophomore midfielder Will Oakley broke free and scored to put Tech up early one minute into the contest. Near the end of the 1st Quarter, sophomore attackman Bob Jaeger scored putting Tech up 2-0. The offense kept driving and creating some opportunities but the Yellow Jackets could not find the back of the net as Volunteer goalie Joe Hiebert kept the score close at the end of the 1st quarter.
On the defensive end, Tech Freshman Mark Mueke, Juniors Joe Buratto, Bryant Jarrell and Senior Austin Karp platooned on the close defense to keep the high scoring Tennessee attack in check. As well, defensive middies Justin Gomes, Michael Schmidt and Brent Burdett kept the driving Tennessee midfielders away from the cage and forced many long shots from the outside. If they did penetrate, senior goalie Mike Wojtaszek came up with the save. Tech Head Coach Ken Lovic, "our defense really stepped up. We challenged them all week in practice and they responded with some great play. UT is a potent team that can score quickly and often and the defense did a good job keeping them off balance the hole night."
Tennessee did have their chances finally scored with 1:25 left in the 1st half on a goal by Lawrence Tilly on an assist from Jimmy Nelson. That score put the Volunteers on the board and only trailing Tech 3-1 at the half.
Both teams came out ready to go in the third but both offenses had trouble scoring as the defenses played well. Tech did crack the scoreless quarter and managed to get it with only 4 seconds remaining on the clock on a Will Oakley drive, putting Tech up 4-1.
Tennessee came back strong and played hard early in the fourth but the Georgia Tech defense again thwarted all attacks. Tech was a little wild in the fourth and gave UT 4 man-up opportunities in the quarter but the Volunteer offense was unable to get one past Wojtaszek. Meanwhile, the Tech offense plugged away and managed 2 more goals, one from Gary Bridges assisted by Sean Dvoren and another goal by Bob Jaeger on a feed from Thomas Frosell to put the Yellow Jackets up 6-1 mid way through the 4th quarter.
Tennessee closed the gap to 6-2 with 5:41 left, with a nice goal by Kris Muir on a feed from Michael Driskill, but Tech responded when Jaeger scored the hat trick with 5 minutes left to play on a feed from Austin Karp and went up 7-2. Jaeger then netted one more late in the game for his fourth of the game to end the scoring and the game at 8-2 in favor of Tech.
"This was a big win for this young team. Tennessee is a great team and we are excited about our hard play tonight. Now we have to get back to work and get ready for a tough Emory team." Coach Lovic added.
BOX SCORE:
Tennessee: 0 - 1 - 0 - 1 = 2
Georgia Tech: 2 - 1 - 1 - 4 = 8
Goals: GT-Jaeger 4, Oakley 2, Bridges 2 UT- Muir, Tilly
Assists: GT- Oakley 2, Karp, Frosell, Dvoren UT- Nelson, Driskill
Saves: GT- Wojo 13, Yaeger 1 UT- Hiebert 12.