Elon 3, Wofford 0
ELON, N.C. ? Five different Elon players tallied points and the Phoenix ended a six-match winless streak by defeating the visiting Wofford Terriers 3-0 in front of 320 fans from Rudd Field on Wednesday night. With the victory, Elon improved to 9-7-2 overall and 3-3-1 in Southern Conference play. Wofford fell to 2-13-1, 0-7-0 on the year.
In the 12th minute, Elon’s Aaron Parker headed a corner kick from Nick Aparicio past Wofford’s Russ Sandifer for what turned out to be the game-winning goal. It was Parker’s second goal in two game and his first career game-winner. The Phoenix added another first half marker when Kiki Willis netted his eighth of the year. Willis took a pass from Justin Wyatt that was mishandled by the Terrier keeper and found the back of the net in the 32nd minute.
With just under three minutes remaining in the second half, Elon added its final tally of the night. Daniel Street scored his first collegiate goal when Willis fed him the ball in a two-on-two in the 88th minute.
Elon’s Taylor Saxe earned his second shutout of the season and was never tested on the evening as the Terriers did not manage a shot on goal. It was the third Phoenix shutout of the season.
Sandifer and Thomas Hunter III split the 90 minutes evenly in goal for Wofford. Sandifer allowed two scores and stopped three shots while Hunter let in one goal and recorded five saves.
Elon held advantages in every statistical category except saves: 17-2 in total shots, 11-0 in shots on goal, 8-2 in corner kicks and 9-17 in fouls committed. Wofford’s keepers combined for eight saves.
The Phoenix, who had been 0-5-1 in its last six outings, will return to the pitch on Sunday evening when Radford visits Rudd Field at 6:00 p.m. Prior to the game, Elon will honor its seniors. Wofford will host Liberty at 6:00 p.m. on Friday night.
Furman 2, College of Charleston 0
Greenville, S.C. ? Shea Salinas netted the game-winning goal, and added an assist as the Furman men’s soccer team defeated College of Charleston 2-0 on Wednesday night at Stone Soccer Stadium.
Bryan Amos recorded three saves in goal to record his seventh shutout of the season.
Furman’s first scoring opportunity came at the 22 minute mark as Patrick Murray raced through the College of Charleston defense. His cross to the back post found a running Chris Davis behind the defender, but Cougar goalkeeper Corbin Waller sprawled to make the save.
Murray nearly tallied the first goal of the season ten minutes later as he held the ball at the top of the box with his back to goal. Murray flicked the ball in the air and volleyed a shot that went just over the crossbar.
Furman had an early scoring opportunity on 57 minutes as Jordan Howard collected a loose ball at the top of the penalty area. The freshman took a touch and hit a shot with the outside of his left boot that was just wide of the near post.
The Paladins nearly broke through in the 60th minute as Eliot Paschalis’
through ball found Jon Leathers behind the defense and one-on-one against the ?keeper. Waller came off his line and made a sliding save against Leathers’ attempt on goal.
Furman tallied a goal on 63 minutes as placeCitySalinas netted his second goal of the season. After a Furman corner kick was cleared out by the College of Charleston defense, Kevin Norman’s sliding challenge dispossessed the Cougar midfielder. Chris Davis played a ball to Rob Victor at the endline and the sophomore midfielder sent a low cross to the near post. Salinas made the diagonal run to the post and flicked the ball past the sliding keeper.
The Paladins added to their lead in the 71st minute on a Murray goal.
Salinas brought the ball through the midfield and found Murray unmarked down the right channel. Murray settled the ball and blasted a 25 yard shot across the mouth of the goal into the far corner of the net.
With the win, Furman improves to 9-5-1 overall, 4-1-1 in the Southern Conference. College of Charleston falls to 9-7-1 on the season, 4-2 in conference action. The win guarantees Furman a home match in the first round of the SoCon Tournament and sets up a matchup with UNC Greensboro on Friday night at Stone Soccer Stadium that will determine the Southern Conference regular season champion.
Wake Forest 3, UNC Greensboro 0
WINSTON-SALEM, NC ? Second-ranked Wake Forest scored three times in the first 30 minutes of the match on its way to a 3-0 win over UNC Greensboro in men’s soccer action at Spry Stadium on Wednesday night.
It was an impressive performance by the Demon Deacons, who outshot the Spartans, 23-6. UNCG, which cleared its bench and sat all of its starters down in the second half with the exception of goalkeeper Nate Berry, dropped to 10-6-1 on the season and suffered just its second setback in the last nine matches (6-2-1).
The Demon Deacons (13-2-1), who are unbeaten in their last seven (6-0-1), took a 1-0 lead 18:39 into the match when Ryan Solle connected on a penalty kick. UNCG defender Matt Elliott got his feet tangled with Zack Schilawski near the left side of the box. The official ruled that the foul was committed in the box, much to the protest of several UNCG players. While setting up for the penalty kick, Henning Jonasson was given a red card for arguing, to put the Spartans a man down for the rest of the night. The goal was Solle’s fourth of the season.
Solle and Schilawski teamed up for Wake Forest’s second goal nearly 10 minutes later. At 27:12, Solle found a wide-open Schilawski from the left corner and Schilawski played a perfect header into the right top corner of the goal for his third goal of the season and a 2-0 advantage.
Steven Curffman made it 3-0 at 30:08 when he connected from 25 yards out from the center of the field. Berry got a hand on it as he dove to his left, but could not keep it from goal. It was Curffman’s fourth goal of the season.
On another front, the Spartans held onto a share of first place in the Southern Conference and got set-up for a Friday night showdown. That’s because Furman topped College of Charleston, 2-0, in Greenville, SC on Wednesday night.
With that result, the winner of the Furman-UNCG match on Friday night will be the SoCon Regular Season Champion. Should that match end in a tie and College of Charleston wins at Appalachian State in its final match on Saturday, the Cougars would win the title. A College of Charleston loss and a Furman-UNCG tie would mean Furman and UNCG would share the title and a tiebreaker would determine the top seed for the men’s soccer tournament.