Appalachian State 1, Georgia Southern 0
STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern men's soccer team was edged by Appalachian State 1-0 Saturday at Eagle Field. The Eagles fought hard, playing down a man most of the match. Georgia Southern kept the game close with a number of fine stops from their defense.
The Eagles found themselves short handed following a 12th minute red card, and Lee Rutter capitalized for Appalachian State. He tallied the game winner in the 17th minute off a pass from Steven Sassano.
The game opened with both teams moving the ball across the midfield. The Mountaineers took two shots in the first two minutes of the match. Luis Calzadilla launched both. His first missed high of the net on a header attempt, and his second was blocked by a defender.
The Eagles got their offense rolling with a through ball to Rich Heyer. Witt Carlisle kept pressure on the Mountaineers' defense with a shot on goal in the seventh minute.
Appalachian State, however, took control of the ball and did not allow another in the first half. Zach Buckley stopped two shots on goal, but the Mountaineers scored the game-winner in the 17th minute. Steven Sassano found Lee Rutter for a shot from the middle of the box.
Georgia Southern's offense rallied and played a better second half. The Eagles launched five shots in the half.
Austin Steele made a number of fine stops including a stop on shot on goal in the 52nd minute. The Mountaineers recorded another shot on goal a minute later, but Buckley stepped up to deny the goal.
The Eagles moved the ball and earned a corner kick a minute. Joe Madigan took the corner kick, but it was cleared by the defense.
Georgia Southern took two more corner's in the 60th minute, which led to a strong shot by Steele. The ball was cleared out of the box, but Steele found the ball and launched a shot.
Arie Muniz put the Mountaineers back on the attack in the 65th minute with a shot to the right post. Steele made the save and cleared the ball out of the box.
The Eagles' fourth corner of the second half led to a header attempt by Steele. His shot missed high of the net.
Matt Crowell and Jon Cox both tallied shots in the second half. Crowell missed high of the net, and Cox was off target to the right of the far post.
Elon 1, UNC Greensboro 0
ELON, N.C. - Justin Wyatt's goal early in the second half was the only score of the night as Elon clinched a Southern Conference Tournament bid, defeating UNC Greensboro, 1-0, in men's soccer action Saturday night.
Despite the loss UNCG still holds a slim hope for a berth into Southern Conference Tournament. The Spartans, 6-9-3 overall, 3-3-1 in conference play, are finished their regular season. Furman, 3-3-0 in league play and 8-7-2 overall, still has a makeup match with College of Charleston on
Tuesday at 3 p.m. If Furman wins that match, it would make the conference tournament. A Furman tie or loss would put UNCG into the tournament. The Spartans do hold the tiebreaker over the Paladins by virtue of their win over Furman earlier this season.
Elon clinched a spot in the tournament with the win, moving to 9-7-2 overall, 4-2-0 in league play. It will face College of Charleston in a semifinal round match. The teams will determine who is the higher seed with their make-up matches this week.
The conference tournament opens on Friday at Wofford, which wrapped up the regular season title and No. 1 seed earlier in the week. The Terriers won their first-ever SoCon regular season crown in men's soccer with a 4-3 win over Furman on Wednesday. Wofford will face either UNCG or Furman in a semifinal match.
On Saturday against UNCG, Elon's Wyatt had the only tally of the night early in the second half. With 7:33 gone in the second half, Brad Franks played a through ball that Wyatt hooked into the upper corner of the goal for his fifth goal of the season.
That tally held up as Clint Irwin recorded his ninth shutout of the season for the Phoenix. UNCG's Peyton Ford made five saves in goal.
Elon had a 20-11 advantage in shots. The teams had played an even opening half with the shots sitting in Elon's favor, 9-6, at the intermission. But the Phoenix had seven of the first eight shots to open the second half, including Wyatt's marker.
Wofford 2, Georgia State 1 (OT)
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Wofford men's soccer team won its final match of the 2009 season 2-1 over Georgia State Saturday night at the Panthers Complex in Atlanta, Georgia. Wofford's Armin Kinigadner scored in the first overtime period to win the match.
The Terriers end their regular season 10-2-3 overall and 5-1-1 in Southern Conference play while Georgia State ended their season 4-11-1 overall.
This is the first time since 1994 that Wofford men's soccer has reached a 10 wins plateau.
As the first half opened Wofford took control early scoring a goal at 12:22 by Yakov Rubinchik with an assist by Kentrel Owens. The Panthers responded quickly tying Wofford 1-1 with a goal at 31:49 by Alex Vivanco.
Starting the second half, trying to pull away Wofford's Yakov Rubinchik took a shot at 48:31 that went high. After back to back corner kicks first by the Terriers then the Panthers, Wofford's Wilson Hood took a shot that was saved by Georgia State's goal keeper Vincent Foermer. After four more missed shots by the Terriers, the game ended 1-1.
In the first overtime period, Georgia State's Moosah Dowlatabadi took a shot to try and clench the victory but the shot was wide. Two minutes later, at 95:12, Wofford's Armin Kinigadner fired a shot from outside the box to win the match.
Thomas Hunter had three saves and one goal against for Wofford, while Vincent Foermer had five saves and two goals against for the Panthers. Wofford had 12 shots to Georgia State's seven and both teams had five corner kicks each. Wofford's Randy McLeod and Scott Redding both received yellow cards in the match as did Georgia State's Alex Vivanco and Brett Cummins.
The Terriers will begin to prep for the upcoming Southern Conference Tournament.
The Southern Conference Tournament will begin on Friday, November 13 and conclude on Sunday, November 15 at Snyder Field on the Wofford campus.