Carson-Newman, Wingate, Tusculum, Mars Hill Advance in Food Lion SAC Men’s Soccer Tournament
The top two seeds of the Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Men's Soccer Tournament, Carson-Newman College and Wingate University, won their respective matches, while defending SAC Tournament champion Tusculum College and No. 6 seed Mars Hill College also advanced to Friday's semifinal round of the SAC Tournament. Top-seed and SAC Champion Carson-Newman posted a 3-1 win over No. 8 seed Catawba College. No. 2 Wingate rallied from a goal down with three unanswered goals in a 3-1 victory over No. 7 Newberry College. Fifth-seeded Tusculum and No. 4 seed Lenoir-Rhyne University played to a 1-1 draw and the Pioneers advanced 4-3 on penalty kicks. No. 6 seed Mars Hill posted the biggest upset of day as the Lions edged third-seeded Lincoln Memorial University, 1-0.
Friday's pairings have Carson-Newman facing in-state rival Tusculum. Wingate and Mars Hill meet in the other semifinal. Both men's semifinals matches will start at 3 p.m. at Manchester Meadows in Rock Hill, S.C.
No. 1 Carson-Newman 3, No. 8 Catawba 1
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. -- Top-seed Carson-Newman advances to the semifinal round of the Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Tournament as the Eagles defeated No. 8 seed Catawba College, 3-1 Tuesday afternoon in a quarterfinal round match at McCown Field.
The Eagles, (ranked No. 15 in NCAA Division II), improves to 13-3-1, while the Catawba Indians end their season at 5-12-1.
Carson-Newman took the lead eight minutes into the match as Robert Hill took a cross from Omar Cooke and scored from 10 yards out. Catawba battled back and equalized on a goal by Kirby Freeland at the 25:06 mark.
The tie was short-lived however, as the Eagles went back on top less than two minutes later on Hill's second goal of the evening. Cooke shared the assist with Ben Backstrom on the goal, which came off a deflection from just outside the goalie box.
That would prove to be the winning goal, but Cooke added some insurance in the 77th minute as he headed home a corner kick from Daniel Tackling. The Eagles held a decisive 26-6 edge in shots. Catawba keeper Tyler Held stopped seven shots, while his C-N counterpart Jordan Moore had three saves.
No. 2 Wingate 3, No. 7 Newberry 1
WINGATE, N.C. --- Wingate University junior midfielder Luke Mulholland scored two goals as the Bulldogs rallied from an early deficit to defeat Newberry College 3-1 in the opening round of the 2009 Food Lion SAC Tournament Tuesday night. The Bulldogs improve to 12-3-1, while Newberry ends its season at 3-14-1 overall.
The Scarlet and Gray got on the board first when sophomore forward Tornubari Nyonebue headed in a corner from freshman midfielder Francisco Espinoza 18:33 into the first half. The tally is the third goal of the year for Nyonebue.
Wingate answered 10 minutes later, when Mulholland was able to take a loose ball fumbled by the Newberry goalkeeper and fire it into the far corner to tie the game at 1-1.
The Bulldogs took the lead at the 37:19 mark, when sophomore midfielder Paul Gallagher found Mulholland on the right side of the box. Mulholland netted his league-best 15th goal of the year to make it 2-1. The 2008 All-American has scored five goals against Newberry in the two meetings this year.
Senior forward Junior Nyemb added some insurance when he drilled a shot from a few yards inside the box into the far corner with 26 minutes remaining in the match. Nyemb has nine goals this season.
Wingate out-shot Newberry 18-14 on the match, while holding a 12-4 advantage in shots on goal. Junior goalkeeper Joey Calandra collected three saves for the Bulldogs. Freshman goalkeeper Joel Johnson racked up nine saves for Newberry.
No. 6 Mars Hill 1, No. 3 Lincoln Memorial 0
BARBOURVILLE, Ky. - The sixth-seeded Mars Hill College men's soccer team eliminated No. 3 seed Lincoln Memorial University 1-0 Tuesday afternoon in the quarterfinal round of the 2009 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Tournament. MHC improves to 7-7-4 on the season while LMU falls to 10-5-1 overall.
The only score of the contest was an own goal. A Railsplitter defender headed a ball back to the keeper at the 30:03 mark. The play of the ball caught Railsplitter keeper Michael Watkins out of position and despite Watkin's best efforts to make the save, the ball trickled into the net to give the Lions a 1-0 lead on the "own goal".
After taking the advantage into the intermission, the Lions and the Railsplitters each had numerous denied scoring opportunities in the second half but neither could convert those opportunities into a goal.
LMU out shot the Lions, 15-7 and edged MHC in corner kicks, 7-4. Alex Huckabee played all 90 minutes in goal for MHC and made seven saves. Watkins also played the entire match in the net for LMU and made four saves.
No. 5 Tusculum 1, No. 4 Lenoir-Rhyne 1 (Tusculum advances 4-3 on penalty kicks)
HICKORY, N.C. --- Tusculum College junior Dean Hopewell buried the deciding strike in a penalty kick shootout to propel the fifth-seeded Pioneers into the semifinal round of the Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Tournament, avenging Tusculum's loss to fourth-seeded Lenoir-Rhyne University in Saturday's regular season finale.
Lenoir-Rhyne (8-6-4) controlled the run of play for much of the match, outshooting the Pioneers (8-6-2) 28-14 on the night, including a 10-3 margin in the first half. Tusculum's Lance Moore made a career-high 13 saves in the match while L-R's Francisco Banuelos stopped five attempts on frame for the Bears.
The two sides played to a scoreless draw through the first 45 minutes despite numerous chances on both ends of the pitch.
Lenoir-Rhyne broke the scoreless draw early in the 52nd minute when Brendan Howard threaded a through ball into a streaking Oriol Cortes, leaving the midfielder in perfect position to notch the Bears' first goal of the match from 15 yards distance. Tusculum's Anteneh Lemma brought the Pioneers back on terms late in the 67th minute, making a run into space and delivering a brilliant finish past the Bears' keeper to even the match at 1-1.
Neither side could find the back of the net in extra time, forcing a penalty kick shootout. Lenoir-Rhyne took a 1-0 advantage in the shootout on the first set of attempts before Lemma converted TC's second attempt for the first of three consecutive conversions for the Pioneers to even the shootout at 1-1. Lenoir-Rhyne converted its next two attempts to even the shootout at 3-3 heading into the final set of attempts.
Both teams' fifth and sixth kickers failed to convert their attempts, before Hopewell took on the role of hero for the Pioneers in the seventh set of penalty kicks, burying a driven strike into the back of net. Hopewell then passed the hero cap onto Moore, who came up with a big save on L-R's final attempt to propel Tusculum through to the semifinal round of the conference tournament.