June 20, 2001

Last time out. Fourth-place Rochester (4-1-1, 17 points) squeaked by the former division leader Wildcats (5-1-2, 22 points) last Saturday night in Hershey. There was no scoring through 90 minutes of regulation, but Rhinos newcomer John Wolyniec found the back of the net during injury time for the 1-0 victory. Rochester and Hershey have now split 1-0 wins this season (both in Hershey) as they head into next week’s meeting in the second round of the US Open Cup.

The hero. Wolyniec, natch. Also uslsoccer.com’s Saturday Night Soccer, which provided gorgeous streaming video of the match (complete with a chat feature) for Rhinos fans too lazy to make the trip to Chocolate Town. Sure, the guy doing play-by-play wasn’t that great (we’re all spoiled by Don Stevens), but he did mention a few of the funnier chat postings. The entire match, along with every other Saturday Night Soccer webcast, is archived online, so you can still see what you missed.

U.S. Open Cup. In a startling turn of events, the United States Soccer Federation has allowed the Rhinos to move their second round U.S. Open Cup date with Hershey from June 27 (when Frontier is still inhabited by those pesky baseball players) to July 2. The other option was letting Hershey host the Cup match, but that's just not acceptable to any anybody who bleeds green and yellow.

Rhinobacks? Almost half of the Atlanta Silverbacks’ starting XI for their weekend clash against Cincinnati played for the Rhinos in the last year (Jimmy Glenn, Andrew Restrepo, Carlos Parra, and Billy Andracki). Things seem to be coming together for Atlanta (5-0-4, 22 points), winning their last four, including a 2-1 victory over MLS’s Tampa Bay Mutiny this past Monday. With defender Craig Demmin starting for the Mutiny, the exhibition must have been a big Rhino homecoming.

Other ex-Rhinos. Darren Tilley, who has only one goal this season, hasn’t started the last two matches for the Vancouver Whitecaps. Late pre-season cut Ryan Trout has played in the last five games for Charleston, and has notched one assist. Nashville’s Brian Hinkey, another 2001 Rhino reject, has worked his way into the starting lineup of the Metros, has scored three times, and is one of the reasons Nashville won its US Open Cup qualifying group. Defender Joe Mercik is a regular starter for basement-dwelling Cincinnati and has one assist, and Pittsburgh Riverhound midfielder Henry Gutierrez has had a tire surgically attached to his midsection.

Next time out. The Rhinos host the third-place Montreal Impact (4-0-6, 18 points) this Friday night at Frontier Field. The French-Canadian side is one of Rochester’s most bitter divisional rivals, although things were a bit more heated back when Montreal was good. Rochester knocked the Impact out of the playoffs in 1996 and 1998, but the Rhinos seem to fall victim to home-referee jobs whenever they play in Montreal. The proof is in the pudding --- the Rhinos are 6-0-2 against Montreal at Frontier, and 1-0-6 at Claude Robillard Stadium.

Scouting report. The bad news is that the Impact may not be as bad as its record indicates. The team just swept a home-and-home series against Toronto last weekend, and has recently knocked off Long Island and Hershey (scoring three goals against the Wildcats). Montreal’s only loss since Memorial Day came against first-place Connecticut. The Impact are led by forwards George Papandreou (4 goals), Niall Thompson (4 goals), and former Rhino fan favorite Mauro Biello (2 goals, 1 assist). They may have some problems between the pipes, though. Jim Larkin was the Impact’s number-one ’keeper, but had a bloated 1.51 goals allowed average. Greg Sutton made both starts against Toronto last weekend, allowing only one goal over 180 minutes. Suddenly everyone is having a goalkeeper controversy but Rochester.

Read the last issue of The Score here.