College of Charleston 2, Stetson 0
MT. PLEASANT, S.C. --- A two-score second period paced the College of Charleston men's soccer team to a 2-0 victory over Stetson in the finale of the 2008 Saturn of Charleston/Nike Soccer Classic at Patriots Point Soccer Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
With the win, the Cougars take home the 2008 Saturn of Charleston/Nike Soccer Classic Championship and improve to 6-3-0 on the year. Stetson falls to 3-3-1 with the loss.
"Our boys really came through in the second half after Stetson really had controlled most of the first half," said head coach Ralph Lundy. "Our team remained focused, organized and very composed, which proves we have an experienced group. I'm very happy to get a win over a good Stetson ball club."
In the first half, Stetson and the Cougars each had numerous opportunities to score goals, but failed on each attempt as the game went into the second period deadlocked in a scoreless tie.
In the 54th minute, the Cougars broke through when Branko Gavric took a pass from teammate Jake Helmig and scored his first goal of the season to give Charleston a 1-0 lead.
In the 80th minute, Charleston put the game out of Stetson's reach, when the speedy Kareem Yearwood broke-away from the Hatter defensive unit and easily put away his fourth goal of the season and second score in two games.
Freshman goalie Clark Hankins earned his second shutout victory in as many matches, as he made three saves between the pipes for the Cougars.
Also, several Charleston players were honored with All-Tournament selections for their efforts in the two games: Drew Fuzy, Ryan Kell, Hankins and John Bello. Yearwood was named MVP of the tournament.
In the first game of the day, Alabama A&M came back from a 1-0 halftime deficit to knock off Jacksonville, 2-1.
The Cougars will return to action on Wednesday, Oct.1 when they open Southern Conference play on the road against Appalachian State. The match is set to begin at 6 p.m.
Radford 1, Appalachian State 0 (OT)
RADFORD, Va.- Justin Zimmer scored on a breakway with five minutes left in overtime to give Radford a 1-0 win over Appalachian State Saturday afternoon at Radford.
The Highlanders outshot Appalachian 19-10 on the day. The Mountaineers had just three shots on goal, two by Antonio Harley and one by Juan Obregon. Obregon and Arie Muniz had a team high three shots while keeper Collin Taylor made seven saves.
Appalachian falls to 5-3 on the season and will host College of Charleston on Wednesday, Oct. 1 in the conference opener.
South Carolina 4, Davidson 0
COLUMBIA, S.C. - In their final tune-up before starting Southern Conference play, the Davidson men’s soccer team was unable to overcome a two-goal halftime deficit to South Carolina, falling 4-0 Saturday afternoon at Eugene E. Stone III Stadium in Columbia, S.C.
Senior Whitey Bolan, sophomore Yannick Pilgrim, and freshman Mark Millard led the offensive attack for the ?Cats, each registering a pair of shots in the match, with Pilgrim and Millard having one shot on goal. In all, six different players had a scoring attempt for Davidson.
South Carolina (5-3-1) got on the board in the seventh minute Jeff Scannella corralled a pass off a throw in and put it past the Davidson defense to put the Gamecocks up 1-0. Six minutes later, USC stretched their lead with Will Traynor’s header finding the back of the net for Traynor’s fifth goal of the year.
After trading possessions to start the second half, the Gamecocks’ Sam Arthur gathered a through pass into the penalty box and got past one Davidson (1-7-1) defender on his way to the scoring strike. USC rounded out the scoring with just under three minutes remaining via a near point-blank goal to push the score to the final 4-0.
Despite being shot-shot 22-10 for the match, Davidson tied USC with eight shots apiece in the second half. Junior Robby Goldsberry added to his SoCon-leading saves total with five in 90 minutes between the pipes.
The Wildcats will now turn their focus to the beginning of the SoCon schedule when they return home to Alumni Stadium to take on the UNC Greensboro Spartans, Wednesday, Oct. 1. Kick off for the ?Cats first home game in almost three weeks is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Brown 3, UNC Greensboro 0
GREENSBORO, N.C. ? Jon Okafor scored twice and Darren Howerton had two assists to lead Brown to a 3-0 win over UNC Greensboro in men’s soccer action Saturday night at UNCG Soccer Stadium.
Howerton assisted on the first two tallies of the night and Okafor scored the last two tallies to put the game out of reach. The Bears (5-2-1) came into the match having scored just six goals in seven matches on the year, but exploded to hand UNCG its second consecutive Homecoming loss and just the fourth in 24 all-time Homecoming matches.
In front of a season-high crowd of 1279, UNCG outshot the Bears 16-11, including 14-6 in the second half. UNCG also had a 7-1 advantage in corner kicks, but couldn’t crack a Bear defense that recorded its sixth shutout of the season.
Rhett Bernstein started the scoring with his third goal of the season at 16:12. Howerton started the play with a free kick into the box. Bernstein got a head on it about eight yards out and knocked it into the bottom right corner of the goal for a 1-0 lead.
Okafor’s first of the night came just 2:58 into the second half. Howerton crossed a ball down the end line into the goal area. The ball got thru the crowd to Okafor on the far post, where he knocked it home for a 2-0 advantage.
Okafor closed out the scoring at 59:03 when he beat the keeper to get a wide-open net. Thompson played a ball through that Okafor chased down, evaded the charging keeper and then knocked it past a Spartan defender from 15 yards out.
UNCG (3-5-1) will open Southern Conference play on Wednesday when it visits Davidson for a 7 pm match.
Charlotte 2, Elon 1 (OT)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- With less than two minutes off the clock in the first overtime frame, Chris Salvaggione caught a centering pass from Evan James and put it by the Elon goalkeeper as the Charlotte 49ers defeated the visiting Elon Phoenix in men’s soccer action in front of a large crowd at Transamerica Field.
The loss was the third straight for Elon (2-6-1), all by 2-1 margins. All six Phoenix defeats have been by a single goal.
Charlotte upped its record to 7-1-0.
Elon head coach Darren Powell said, "Our guys fought very hard again. Right now we don't seem to be getting the breaks. Charlotte's riding high right now. We look forward to bouncing back on Wednesday night."
Elon jumped on board first, when at the 2:22 mark Justin Wyatt launched a goal past Charlotte keeper David Martin to give the Phoenix an early advantage. It was Wyatt's team-leading fourth tally on the season. Aaron Parker was credited with an assist on the score.
With both teams battling back and forth, James took advantage of a mistake by the Elon goalie as the keeper came out of the net and James slide to the side and put a goal in the open net to even the score at one a piece.
The remainder of the game would be battled to a deadlock in every facet of the game as both teams had opportunities to score but were unable to capitalize, pushing the game into overtime.
As the whistle blew on the overtime frame the Niners came out with a quick possession and Jason Hawes launched a deep pass to the far side of the field where James met the pass and redirected it into the waiting foot of Salvaggione who belted a shot to the back of the net and gave the 49ers their fifth win in a row.
The Niners outshot Elon by a 17-10 margin.
Elon’s goal broke an extended scoreless streak for Martin as the goalkeeper had not allowed a goal in his previous 344 plus minutes of action.
Salvaggione’s goal was his team leading eighth tally of the year.
The Phoenix returns home to tackle undefeated and untied, national number one Wake Forest from Rhodes Stadium at 7 p.m. on Wednesday night.