Lenoir-Rhyne advances in Food Lion SAC Men’s Soccer Tournament

Hickory, N.C. - The No. 12 Lenoir-Rhyne College Men's Soccer Team (16-1) moved on to the semifinals of the 2006 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Tournament after cruising to a 4-0 win over Mars Hill College (5-9-2) in the first round Wednesday afternoon at Bears Field.

Lenoir-Rhyne came into the tournament as the second seed while Mars Hill was seeded seventh.

L-R will now face sixth-seeded Wingate at 3 p.m., on Friday in Jefferson City, Tenn.

The Bears, the top scoring team in NCAA Division II, received goals from three different players as well as an own goal en route to the win.

The own goal happened to be the first of the match after a corner kick from sophomore midfielder Gary Higgins (Paisley, Scotland/St. Andrews Academy) was tipped in by a Lions player right in front of the net at the 35:06 mark.

Higgins, though, assisted on the team's second goal when sophomore defender Shawn Brunk (Merritt Island, Fla./Merritt Island HS) headed in another one of his corner kicks.

The match remained 2-0 until the final three minutes of the match when the Bears added a pair of goals to make it a 4-0 final.

Sophomore forward Luis Carrizosa (North Bergen, N.J./North Bergen HS) scored on a deflection with the Lion goalkeeper out of position in the 88th minute and freshman forward Amar Brkic (Winston-Salem, N.C./R.J. Reynolds HS) tallied his team-leading 12th goal of the year on a nice header cross from freshman midfielder Aaron Wheeler (Baltimore, Md./Patapsco HS) with just 28 seconds left in the match.

Lenoir-Rhyne freshman goalkeeper Mark Jorgensen (Ringwood, Australia/Aquinas College) picked up his third shutout of the year while Patrick Browne (Asheville, N.C.) suffered the loss in goal for the Lions despite stopping five shots.

Wingate University defeats Newberry College, 4-2

NEWBERRY, S.C. - The sixth-seeded Wingate University Bulldogs advanced to the semifinals of the 2006 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Men's Soccer Tournament with a 4-2 victory over the third-seeded Newberry College Indians at the Newberry College Soccer Complex on Wednesday afternoon.

A Lee Minton header off a corner kick by Jonathan Gribben in the 52nd minute turned out to be the game winner for Wingate (9-7-1).

Newberry (8-9-0) opened the scoring on a goal by first-team all-SAC forward Debola Ogunseye (Lagos, Nigeria) in the fifth minute on a blast to the right corner from a one-on-one situation against Wingate goalkeeper Jonathan Schute.

But Wingate got an opportunity to tie the match in the seventh minute with a penalty kick after the ball bounced off the hand of a Newberry player inside the 18-yard box. First-team all-SAC defender Kerrin Sheldon converted the penalty kick to tie the match.

In the 39th minute, Gribben scored when he headed in a Bulldog throw-in that bounced loose in the Newberry penalty area to give Wingate the 2-1 lead it would take into the half.

Wingate would use two early second half goals to pull away from the Indians.

After Minton's header goal in the 52nd, A.J. Wullschleger scored his second goal against Newberry this season in the 55th minute on an assist from second-team all-SAC forward Junior Nyemb, giving Wingate the 4-1 lead.

Newberry turned up the offensive pressure for the rest of the match, but was only able to find the back of the net once more, when William Koch (Greenville, S.C.) slotted a through ball to Ogunseye in the 73rd minute. Ogunseye converted on the opportunity for his 16th goal of the season.

Ogunseye's 16 goals in this season ties him for third place in the Newberry record books with Rick Ladimir's total in 2001. The 38-point season by the Nigerian is the third-best by a Newberry player, and puts him in a tie with Chad Domis for fifth all-time at Newberry in points.

Wingate advances to the semifinals of the Food Lion SAC Tournament, where they will play second-seeded Lenoir-Rhyne College at 3 p.m. Friday at Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tenn.

Catawba edges Presbyterian, 1-0

CLINTON, SC -- Senior Nathan Zuzga (Troy, MI) scored his 11th goal of the year at the 31:46 mark of the first half to give fifth-seeded Catawba a 1-0 victory over host and fourth-seeded Presbyterian in a quarterfinal match of the 2006 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Men's Soccer Tournament on Wednesday night at Martin Stadium. The Catawba Indians improve to 11-7 and advance to Friday's noon semifinal against top-seed and host Carson-Newman in Jefferson City, TN. Presbyterian falls to 8-3-3.

Zuzga's goal was made possible when teammate Ryan Villiard (Holiday, FL) forced Presbyterian keeper Mark Owens to make a diving save, but the ball fell in prime position in the middle of the six-yard box. Zuzga opportunistically took advantage, placing the ball into the back of the net for the eventual game-winner.

Presbyterian out-shot Catawba 21-11 in the contest, forcing Indians' starting goalkeeper Tyler Held (Virginia Beach, VA) to make five saves. Five of Catawba's shots were on target as Owens had to make four saves.

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