Georgia Southern 2, UNC Greensboro 1
STATESBORO, Ga. ? Tim Masters scored his fourth goal of the season, but a pair of first-half tallies by Georgia Southern held up as the Eagles topped UNC Greensboro, 2-1, in the Southern Conference men’s soccer regular season finale for both teams.
With the loss, UNCG (6-11-1, 2-5-0) will be the No. 7 seed in the Southern Conference Men’s Soccer Tournament beginning this weekend. UNCG will play on the road in the quarterfinals at either College of Charleston or Furman. If the Cougars beat Wofford on Tuesday night, UNCG will be headed back to Patriots Point, where it topped College of Charleston, 2-1, earlier this
season. If Wofford wins, the Spartans will head to Furman, where they dropped a 3-2 overtime decision this season.
Jarryd Nolette scored the first goal of the match for Georgia Southern (7-8-0, 4-3-0) in the 16th minute. B.J. Reine pass the ball from the right side of the box and found Nolette in front of the goal for his second tally of the season and an early 1-0 advantage.
The Eagles, which beat UNCG for the first time in 17 meetings (1-14-2), took a 2-0 lead midway through the half. Joe Madigan scored off a feed from Danny Hall in the 28th minute to make it 2-0.
UNCG got one back quickly to open the second half. Masters scored off of a Matt Strine feed at 46:42 to cut the deficit in half, 2-1.
But the Spartans could not get the equalizer, including playing the final 11 minutes up a player after a red card against Georgia Southern.
Wofford 1, College of Charleston 0
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- A goal with just under five minutes to play in the half was all visiting Wofford needed to knock off College of Charleston, 1-0, in Southern Conference men's soccer action in the regular-season finale for both schools. The win is the second consecutive victory for the Terriers during regular-season closing matches, following a 5-1 triumph last season against Birmingham-Southern.
Wofford (6-12, 2-5 SoCon) earned its second league victory of the campaign, a first for the Terriers since the 1999 squad under then-head coach John Blair registered a 2-6 mark. Blair's 1997 team, the first to face a Southern Conference schedule full time, also picked up two wins on the season.
Tonight's win was under head coach Ralph Polson, who had spent the previous eight seasons as the associate head coach at College of Charleston. He served in the capacity for the Cougars since 2000.
Junior Philips Leach scored his first career goal to give the Terriers the victory on an unassisted attempt at 40:23. He sent a shot towards the College of Charleston (9-9, 3-4 SoCon) net, but it deflected off a Cougar defender and into the cage past goalkeeper Clark Hankins for the game's only score.
Wofford held an 8-3 shot advantage at the half, but CofC responded with a 6-1 edge during the final 45 minutes to knot the final totals at nine apiece.
Sophomore Wilson Hood led the Terriers with two shots, while Matt Morris and Wes Knight each had a pair of attempts for the Cougars.
Junior Thomas Hunter collected four saves in pitching his second shutout of the campaign, both in league action. His other blanking came Oct. 18 against Furman in Spartanburg, S.C. He has now lowered his season goals-against average to 0.74 in 363:28 of playing time with 17 saves and an 85.0 save percentage.
Hankins recorded five saves in taking the loss for CofC.
Wofford will return to action in the quarterfinal round of the Southern Conference Tournament at 7 p.m. Saturday when it travels to Elon, N.C., to face the regular-season champion Elon Phoenix. The Terriers dropped a 3-1 decision to the Phoenix in the regular-season meeting, Sept. 17 at Rudd Field.