By Gargoyle sports staff
Posted Monday, Oct. 16, 2006, The OG, sports

CHAMPAIGN — Despite bad weather, the Uni boys varsity soccer team began its postseason impressively by defeating Sullivan 6-0 today on the University of Illinois campus.

The Illineks are now 16-3-1, breaking the school record for wins in a season originally set in 2004 (15-4-2) and equaled last year (15-5-1). It was Uni's second victory over Sullivan this season. The Illineks won 9-1 on Sept. 9.

Uni will play St. Thomas More Thursday in the Monticello Class A sectional semifinals. The game will begin 3 p.m. at Monticello High School. The winner will play in the sectional title match 3 p.m. Oct. 23, also at Monticello, for the right to advance to the state tournament. No Uni soccer team has ever made it to state.

St. Thomas More defeated host Macon Meridian today 2-1. The Uni varsity did not play STM during the regular season. STM is seeded 13th out of 15 teams in the Monticello sectional. Uni is seeded No. 1 and received a first-round bye. In STM's first-round game Friday, the Sabers upset No. 4 Monticello 2-0.

In today's win, Uni was led by senior striker Martin Granick, who scored three goals. Senior attacking midfielder Michael Belmont added two goals, raising his season total to 28. Junior Sam Imlay finished off the scoring with one goal.

“We scored in the first couple minutes, but then had a hard time scoring again because we weren't used to the slick conditions,” Belmont said. “We had a lot of passes that would have worked in normal conditions but were too fast on the wet grass. Near the end of the first half we managed to score twice. In the second half we scored twice fairly early, and played our subs for about 20 minutes, who scored one more time.”

Senior Sam Klein assisted on two goals. Granick, Belmont, senior Tomasz Kalbarczyk, and junior Josh Chung added one assist each.

“Although he didn't record any stats today, Jake Seeley was an instrumental component of our attack,” Belmont said of the junior midfielder, “and two or three times he had the pass before the assist which set up the whole goal-scoring play.”

Goalie Isaac Radnitzer played the entire game. (Fellow junior Mike Renner, who has shared goal-keeping duties with Radnitzer, was out of town.) The shutout was the team's eighth of the year, another school record.

2006 VARSITY RECORD: 16-3-1 overall, 4-0 ECIC
(Home games in bold)
Aug. 26: Blue Ridge (Uni Soccer Shootout), W 6-0
Aug. 26: Oakwood (Uni Soccer Shootout), W 5-2
Aug. 26: Fisher/Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley (Uni Soccer Shootout), W 7-2
Aug. 29: Judah Christian,* W 2-0
Aug. 31: at Mahomet-Seymour, W 2-0
Sept. 5: Fisher/GCMS, W 3-0
Sept. 7: at Decatur Christian,* W 12-0
Sept. 9: at Sullivan, W 9-1
Sept. 12: Oakwood, W 3-2
Sept. 14: at Iroquois West, W 7-1
Sept. 19: Decatur Lutheran,* W 4-1
Sept. 21: Champaign Central, W 2-1
Sept. 25: at Warrensburg-Latham, L 2-0
Sept. 28: at Danville Schlarman, L 2-0
Sept. 30: Urbana, L 5-1
Oct. 3: Unity, T 1-1
Oct. 5: at Catlin (Salt Fork), W 2-0
Oct. 10: at Normal Calvary Baptist,* W 5-1
Oct. 12: at Monticello, W 4-0
Oct. 16: Sullivan, W 6-0
*East Central Illinois Conference opponent