ROCHESTER, NY, June 3rd, 2006 - After years of anticipation the Rochester Rhinos played their first game in their new stadium. The facility is beautiful, with excellent sight lines and a scoreboard that will amaze you.
Unfortunately the Rhinos play on Saturday night did not match the beauty of their stadium. The rain soaked fans that did show up were treated to a lack luster performance.
The first half began at a quick pace with Rochester's Johnny Menyongar putting the ball in the net less than 20 minutes in. The crowd went wild at the apparent first goal being scored in the new stadium, however most did not see the assistant's flag go up thus negating the goal.
From that point on the Rhinos played poorly. The passes were errant or mishandled at the receiving end. Rochester was conceding lots of space to Virginia Beach and allowing them to setup and take shots almost at will.
By the end of the first half the Mariner had almost double the amount of shots that the Rhinos did. The Rhinos kept up this performance in the second half as well. It was a bit of irony that former Rhino Greg Simmonds was given way to much space in the 57th minute and easily put a shot past Vallow.
It would not be until less than 10 mintues of regulation time were left that Rochester woke up. Substitute Rey Martinez assisted on Charles Gbeke's goal in the 82nd minute. Rochester then took the lead in the 89th minute with a shot from Menyongar.
With the final seconds ticking away, the Mariners managed to loft the ball into the box where Shak was able to get above everyone and head the ball past Vallow.
The Rhinos, while still undefeated, looked to be a bit overwhelmed with the hype surrounding the new stadium. Their play was sloppy and they simply gave up too much space to the Mariners. Rochester returns to Paetek Park on June 17th when hopefully better weather and play will great the fans.
