Crystal Palace Baltimore News Release - www.crystalpalaceusa.com

Monday, March 17, 2008

BALTIMORE, MD -- After winning their pre-season opener 3-1 against the Aegean Hawks last weekend, Crystal Palace Baltimore notched their second victory with a hard-fought 2-0 defeat of Loyola College at Loyola’s Diane Geppi-Aikens Field. Approximately 150-200 fans were in attendance.

Palace played possession football throughout the match, but failed to muster any real chances in the opening 25 minutes. That changed on 28 minutes when ever-eager midfielder Bryan Harkin surged forward from midway inside Loyola’s half, playing the ball to Sergio Flores on the right edge of the penalty box. With one touch, Flores laid the ball off to Matthew Mbuta who slid his way past three defenders and placed the ball inside the right post from six yards out.

The game opened up in the second half with both teams creating plenty of opportunities to score. The Eagles’ best chance of the half fell to Pat Healey who headed just beyond the far post, after a probing cross from right-back Andrew Marshall near the right corner flag.

Loyola were denied four minutes later when Palace keeper Dustyn Brim got down well to deflect a powerful, low shot from Jamie Darvill away for a Greyhounds’ corner.

Darvill was guilty of wasting the best chance of the afternoon for Loyola with 10 minutes to go, when he seemed slightly surprised that a long cross from the right had beaten the Palace defense, bringing it under control nicely and blasting it over from eight yards out with only the keeper to beat.

With less than three minutes left, Palace’s Larry Mark got on the end of an accurate long ball from the back, battled hard to beat one defender to break into the box, passed another and his perfct low cross from the byline was turned in cleanly by substitute Carlos Morales from the edge of the six yard box to seal the victory. This was the second goal in as many games for Morales, who played last year with the USL-2 champion Harrisburg City Islanders.

"It was a good test for us. Loyola is a very well managed team, very organized and difficult to break down." said Palace Co-manager, Pete Medd. "It took two special, individual efforts to create the goals, one from Mathew Mbuta and one from Larry Mark. We held possession very well but need to get into the attack quicker. That will come as we get all our players in and everyone back on the same page."

Co-manager Jim Cherneski added: "We are only two weeks in and we are not fully fit yet, so it is to be expected that we were a bit stagnant, a bit too patient at times. But we are building into things slowly as we have a long pre-season."

Next up for Palace is a trip to the outskirts of Harrisburg Pennsylvania for a noon kickoff against the reigning USL-2 champion City Islanders.

Crystal Palace USA team lineup:
1st Half:
Zach Thompson (Faouzi Bendaoud 30, Dustyn Brim 60), Val Teixeira (David Feazell 70), Alex Ughiovhe (Jim Cherneski 45), Paul Robson, Andrew Marshall, Bryan Harkin (Dan Lader 70), Shintaro Harada, Pat Healey, Matthew Mbuta (Carlos Morales 70), Cecil Lewis (Zak Flores 45), Sergio Flores (Larry Mark 45)

2nd Half:
Dustyn Brim, Olivier Tchachoua, Brian Moffa, Dia Hunte, David Feazell, Dan Lader, Pat Healey, Zak Flores, Carlos Morales, Larry Mark, Sergio Flores

Goals:
Mbuta (28), Morales (87)