Appalachian State 4, College of Charleston 2
October 21, 2006 - BOONE, N.C. ? Appalachian State University men’s soccer scored three goals in a three-minute span in the first half and staved off a College of Charleston rally to earn a 4-2 victory in the Southern Conference finale for both teams Saturday afternoon.
The win improves ASU’s record to 3-2-2 in the league and 9-5-2 overall. CofC now stands at 9-8-1 overall and 4-3-0 in the league. The two teams’ seeding and opponent for the upcoming SoCon tournament hinge on the outcome of the Georgia Southern at Davidson match played late Saturday afternoon.
Appalachian jumped out to an early 3-0 lead with three goals in three minutes in the opening half. ASU kept the Cougars off the board until CofC started a scoring barrage of its own with two goals in just over a minute in the second half to pull within one. The Mountaineers kept CofC off the board the remainder of the match and added an insurance goal late to preserve the win.
The Mountaineers started the scoring in the 26th minute with Happy Hall (Nassau, The Bahamas) knocking a Juan Obregon (Castle Rock, Colo.) cross from the far side into goal. Obregon added a goal of his own 58 seconds later when Corey Lugger (Irmo, S.C.) kicked a long ball into the box that was redirected by Arie Muniz (Spring, Texas) in front of the goal to a waiting Obregon at the near post. The goal was Obregon’s seventh of the season while the assist was Lugger’s 11th.
Two minutes later, the Mountaineers added their third goal off the foot of senior Shawn Berting (Wilmington, N.C.). Berting booted in a deflected save off a hard shot from Michael Walters (Raleigh, N.C.) for his first tally of the season.
The Cougars put a scare into the home side in the 70th minute when Scott Milroth won a ball off ASU’s defense and streaked towards goal to make the score 3-1. Sixty-nine seconds later, the Cougars got their second tally when Drew Fuzy rocketed a shot in from the top of the box on a ball headed out of the goalmouth by an ASU defender.
Muniz secured the victory for the Apps in the 82nd minute when he knocked in Sean Sassano’s (Gastonia, N.C.) deflected shot for his seventh goal of the season, tying him with Obregon for the team lead.
The Mountaineers outshot CofC, 22-17, and held a 12-9 advantage in shots on goal. Greg Walters (Raleigh, N.C.) stopped seven shots in goal for ASU, while his counterpart, Corbin Waller made eight saves in the losing effort.
CofC’s Jeremy Gold led all players with nine shots while Sassano and Obregon had five each for ASU.
Georgia Southern 1, Davidson 0
DAVIDSON, N.C. Georgia Southern defeated the Davidson Wildcats 1-0 in Southern Conference men's soccer action Saturday afternoon at Alumni Stadium in front of 1,204 fans. The win for the Eagles secures them the league's number two seed as they improve to 8-4-3 overall and 4-1-2 in the SoCon. The Wildcats fall to 5-12-1 and 1-5-1 in the conference.
GSU and Davidson will meet again next weekend in the opening round of the
2006 Southern Conference Tournament in Statesboro, Ga. The game will be played Saturday Oct. 28 and is tentatively set to kick-off at 3 p.m.
?I give credit to Georgia Southern,? said Wildcat head coach Matt Spear.
?They played an organized match and had a good game plan. They have done a great job all season in finding a way to win.?
The Eagles finally broke a scoreless tie with 17:10 remaining in the contest thanks to a Kellen Stanley header from point blank range. Austen Peacock set up the eventual game-winner with a cross into box that found the streaking midfielder.
Davidson had the only realistic scoring opportunity in the opening half when Charlie Reiter played a ball down the left side to Aaron West, who centered a pass to Tom Lavan but a diving Adam Webb saved his blast from the top of the 18.
Lavan had another chance to put the first mark on the board in the in the 61st minute. The Omaha, Neb., native received a thru ball from Robby Hoak then tried to slide a shot around the near post, but his open goal attempt was saved and cleared off the end line by a GSU defender.
The Eagles held a slim 14-11 advantage in shots. Davidson's Robby Goldsberry finished with four saves, while Webb turned away two en route to his sixth shutout of the season.
Today's affair was the last time for seniors Marco Antunez, Cass Baltz, David Sartorio and Mac Wilkie to play in front of the Wildcat faithful.
Georgia Southern will conclude its five-game road swing and regular season in a 7 p.m. kick-off at Jacksonville on Tuesday, Oct. 24.
?All year we have looked forward to the conference tournament. We?re building to play our best soccer when it counts the most.?