Patterson spending summer doing what he does best - scoring goals

GREENSBORO, NC – UNC Greensboro’s Randi Patterson is certainly enjoying his summer vacation. He’s doing the same thing he does in the fall – score goals.

Patterson, who will be a senior next season, is currently playing for the Carolina Dynamo in the Premier Development League (PDL). Last week, he was named by US Open.com as the US Open Cup Player of the Round after scoring three goals in the Dynamo’s 4-3 win over Cape Cod.

Last year, Patterson was a semifinalist for the Hermann Award, college soccer’s National Player of the Year trophy. The way he is going right now, the Hackensack, NJ native will be mentioned among the best again this fall. Patterson has helped the Dynamo to a 10-0-1 mark in PDL play, which is tops in the South Atlantic Division. He is tied for second in the league in points with 21 and tied for first in the PDL in goals with 10.

Those numbers don’t include, however, his recent explosion in the opening round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup last Thursday. Patterson scored just before halftime and added his second of the day just after the break to give the Dynamo a 2-0 lead over fellow PDL member Cape Cod. The Crusaders, who were second in the PDL’ Eastern Conference qualifying behind Carolina, pulled even with two goals five minutes apart before Carolina took a 3-2 on an own goal midway through the second half. Patterson then completed his hat trick a few minutes later to make it a 4-2 score.

The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup dates back to 1914 and is the oldest cup competition in U.S. soccer and is one of the oldest in the world. Open to all affiliated amateur teams and professional teams in the United States, the annual tournament is conducted on a single-elimination basis. Dependant on a team’s level of play, teams are given byes and placed into the bracket at certain levels. For example, Carolina skipped the qualifying round and started in the first round. Teams that are members of Major League Soccer (MLS) receive the maximum bye and are placed in the fourth round. A full bracket is available on-line at USOpenCup.com.

The Dynamo, who also have UNCG’s Scott Jones playing for them as well as Elon goalkeeper Taylor Saxe, will host a second round match-up in the tournament on June 28. Carolina will take on the Richmond Kickers, members of the United Soccer League’s Second Division at Macpherson Stadium located on the grounds of Bryan Park just north of Greensboro. Richmond will be playing its first match of the tournament. The match gets under way at 7:30 pm.

The winner of the Carolina-Richmond match will host Seattle of the United Soccer League’s First Division in the third round on July 12. That will also be Seattle’s first match of the Cup.

Patterson and the Dynamo play host to Nashville in their next PDL match on Saturday, July 1 at 7:30 pm at Macpherson Stadium.

- UNCG -