South Florida's Aristeguieta named Big East Scholar-Athlete of the Year

South Florida’s Francisco Aristeguieta has become the second consecutive Bull to be named the Big East Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year, following in the footsteps of teammate Zak Boggs, the 2008-09 winner of the award.

Aristeguieta will receive a $4,000 scholarship that can be applied to graduate or professional studies.

"I think that this is a reflection of a lot of hard work, because that is the mentality that is instilled in us here at USF," Aristeguieta said in a school press release. "Our advisors and our coaches are always telling us to work as hard as we possibly can. I am honored to receive the award, and equally as honored to represent the school in earning this award."

Aristeguieta was a captain for the Bulls for the past two seasons, starting 20 games in 2009 principally as a central midfielder and recording three assists. Bulls coach George Keifer said he was very proud of Aristeguieta having won the award.

"This is a tremendous honor," Kiefer said. "While this is the second year in a row for a member of our program to win this award, I think that the main focus is on Francisco winning it. He has served as a two-year captain for our program and has really been a leader, and for him to be picked for this award from all the great student-athletes in the Big East shows a lot about him and his character. I think that is why he has been such a great captain that past two years."

This is only the second time in the award’s history that it has been awarded to members of the same school, with Villanova having won the award in three straight years from 1987-89.

Milien, Rowdies talking; Burt taking his chance

His absence from the field, but presence at the Tampa Bay Rowdies combine, had led some to speculate that former University of Tampa All-American Pascal Milien was one of the players the Rowdies had already signed to become part of their inaugural season.

But while Milien said he and his people and the Rowdies are talking, nothing is definite yet.

“We’re working on something right now, so we’ll just wait and see how everything’s going to be going,” Milien said. “Those guys saw me play at the MLS combine, and I have a little ankle injury, and I don’t want to make it worse, so that’s why (I’m not playing).”

Milien said he would love to stay in Tampa, though.

“It would be really, really exciting because this is my hometown, pretty much,” Milien said. “This is where I go to school, 45 minutes away from where I went to high school. Nice, beautiful weather in Florida, so I would love to stay here.”

TAKING HIS CHANCE: The first combine the Rowdies held in Tampa didn’t go well for St. Petersburg’s Chad Burt. Injured on the opening day, he didn’t get much opportunity to impress General Manager Perry Van Der Beck.

This time around, Burt is making the most of his chance. He has played well for the first two days, and picked up a goal on Wednesday while going close with another pair of opportunities.

“My legs are getting a little tired,” Burt said. “I played a little bit more simple today defensively, and it was great to get the goal. Make it a little easier on me and my teammates.”

Burt had bags of ice strapped to his calves after the game to help cool as the afternoon sun appeared to take its toll on a lot of players. His Yellow ‘B’ squad, after a shaky first 15 minutes, settled down and played well for the final 15 minutes of the first period and the opening 15 of the second before the game slowed.

“When the game starts, it was all very tight, you’ve got everyone flying around,” Burt said. “When the game settled down we got a little more possession out of the back. It’s a lot easier when you’re moving the ball instead of having everyone flying around at 100 miles-per-hour, but I felt like after that first 15 we got the ball to the players we needed to hold the ball and went from there.”

SCRIMMAGE SUMMARIES: In warmer conditions that Tuesday, the pace of the opening game between the Yellow ‘B’ and Blue ‘A’ teams was pretty frenetic, with the Blue squad getting the better of it as the Yellow side wasn’t as sharp as in its opener. Former USF standout Francisco Aristeguieta moved into the center of midfield for Blue, playing on the top of a triangle with Stanley Nyazamba and Takuya Yamada, and seemed more comfortable there than in the opening game where he had played wide.

Aristeguita almost opened the scoring, in fact, after a nice move down the right was centered to the top of the penalty area where Sean Bucker layed it off to Aristeguieta for a drive, only for former University of Tampa All-American Ryan Thompson to tip the shot over the crossbar.

But then the Yellow squad found its rhythm, led by midfielder Alan Sanchez and defender Otto Loewy, who had an excellent game at the back. That led to a pair of chances for Chad Burt, the first beautifully turned aside by Blue goalkeeper Dan Williams, but the second finding the back of the net.

Burt then saw his curling shot from just outside the penalty area go over the bar just after the break, while forward Aaron Wheeler also did nice work up top for the blue squad.

The Yellow ‘A’ squad got off to a fast start in their game against the Blue ‘B’ team as a counter-attack was capped by an early goal for Bryan Perez. The Yellow team pursued a more aggressive approach in getting the ball forward, and full back Taylor Lord was impressive not only in defense, but also when he made a good run past two players to set up an attack that led to a good effort on goal by Tyrell Burgess.

The Blue squad was a little more patient in its build-up, with Ryan Maduro from Providence pulling the strings well in midfield and Dwight Barnett again offering good strength and work-rate up front. But as in the opening day, Barnett often didn’t get the support he needed from his midfield, and was left to toil alone.

After the break, with former Chicago Fire draftee and Ridgewood High Richard Jata holding a more prominent role, the Yellow squad did well. They scored their second goal of the game after Jata had his shot from the left parried away, only for the rebound to come to Alex Weekes, who rifled a low shot into the back of the net from 15 yards out.

Colleges: Bulls fall in shootout in Big East Quarterfinals

Holding a two-goal lead midway through the first half, and appearing to have control of its Big East Tournament quarterfinal at Notre Dame, things were looking good for No.13 South Florida to advance to next weekend’s semifinals, and a chance to retain its title.

Then, everything went wrong.

Notre Dame scored goals just before both halftime and the end of regulation to tie the game 2-2 and send the game to overtime, and the Fighting Irish then kept their nerve to win a shootout 5-4 to advance to face Louisville on Friday night.

Jorge Mora had given the Bulls the lead in the third minute, taking advantage of good work by Sebastian Thuriere and Hasani Sinclair to score his fourth goal of the season. Thuriere would then head home from Kevin Olali’s cross to put the Bulls up 2-0 in the 23rd minute.

But after taking their lead, the Bulls let the Irish back into the game, as Notre Dame spurned a pair of chances before pulling a goal back in the 43rd minute, Bright Dike scoring after being put through by Michael Thomas.

Less than a minute later, the Bulls were reduced to 10 men as Francisco Aristeguieta was sent off for his second yellow card. Playing a man down for the entire second half, the Bulls did a good job of restricting the number of shots that got through to goalkeeper Jeff Attinella, and almost caught the Irish to restore their two-goal lead when Thuriere had his header cleared off the goalline by Thomas.

The Bulls resistance was finally broken down in the 83rd minute as Aaron Maund headed in off the post to tie the game, sending it to overtime.

Thomas was again the hero for the Irish in overtime, clearing a shot by Bernardo Anor off the goalline, but neither side was able to break the deadlock in the extra 20 minutes, sending the game to a shootout. There, all five Notre Dame shooters beat Attinella. The Bulls matching them shot for shot until the fifth round, when Thuriere fired his effort off the crossbar, sending the Irish through.

The Bulls should still get an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament, but won’t find out until next Sunday where and when they will next take the field.

Colleges: Bulls disappointed, but focused on Marquette

TAMPA – The disappointment of missing out on a bye in the first round of the Big East tournament has dissipated for No.13 South Florida, which is now firmly focused on one of the two teams that held the Bulls to a tie on their home field in the regular season.

“When you look at it, we would have liked the bye, but there’s nothing we can look back and do about it now, we get to have a home game on Thursday,” said goalkeeper Jeff Attinella after Tuesday morning’s practice.

Marquette earned a point at the USF Soccer Stadium in both side's opening game of the Big East schedule, Bernardo Anor’s opening goal being cancelled out by Adam Lysak’s finish in the second half. The Bulls had a late chance to earn victory, but Javed Mohammed sent his penalty kick wide in the final minute of regulation.

In that contest Marquette used a tight, defensive system and tried to hit the Bulls on the counter-attack, but South Florida coach George Kiefer said the Golden Eagles have made some changes since the two teams played in September.

“I think they’re a better team, they have some guys that were out for their first game that are now starting that make them better, so I think the two games will be completely different,” Kiefer said. “I think we’re better, I think they’re better, but we’ll keep focusing on South Florida. We can’t control what Marquette is going to do, so we’ll just try to get sharper at what we do.”

An inward focus has been at the forefront of practice, with captain Francisco Aristeguieta believing that if the Bulls just need to concentrate on doing what they do well.

“We’re really trying to focus on getting our things better, trying to get a little better every day,” Aristeguieta said. “We don’t change for any team, so we just try to do the things we do a little better every time.”

Attinella said that the result against Rutgers apart, the Bulls are playing their best soccer of the season at the right moment, but that they are expecting Marquette to come in to the game confident because of the prior result. Kiefer, though, expects the fact that the Golden Eagles did earn a point in their last trip to Tampa to be a motivating factor for a good performance by his side.

“They’re one of the few teams that took a couple of points from us at home, so I think that lends itself to be a great opportunity for our guys,” Kiefer said. “It’s not often you get a chance at a team that took points from you, so I look forward to that.”