Men’s Soccer Geared up for SoCon Championship

 

Cougars play at Furman in opening round on Sunday

GREENVILLE, S.C. – The College of Charleston men’s soccer team travels to Furman as the No. 7 seed in the Southern Conference Men’s Soccer Championship to challenge the second-seeded Paladins at the Eugene Stone Soccer Stadium on Sunday, Nov. 6 at 6 p.m.

The Cougars have played well down the stretch but suffered costly injuries and misfortunes resulting in a winless streak of nine matches (0-5-4). Despite the lack of results, CofC has looked like the more dominant team and outshot its opponent in several of the outings.

The Cougars capped the regular season with a 2-2 draw against tournament No. 4 seed Davidson on Tuesday evening at Alumni Stadium. CofC led twice off goals by Sean de Silva (Port of Spain, Trinidad) and Francis Twohig (St. Simon’s Island, Ga.) but Davidson responded both times with the final equalizer coming in the 87th minute. The Cougars outshot Davidson, 4-1 in overtime and 23-15 in the match, but were unable to net the game winner.

“We’ve played, we’ve attacked, we’ve gotten lots of opportunities and lots of shots,” said head coach Ralph Lundy. “We’ve held more of the ball in probably every game. We’ve had more shots than our opponent in the last three matches and they’ve ended 0-1, 0-1 and 2-2 against Davidson.

“That’s tough on the guys when we’re playing good soccer. We’re keeping the ball and getting to goal probably as well as we have in five years and we’re not getting the results. But, we’re fighting and the players are keeping their focus.

“We had a 2-2 draw with Furman about three weeks ago so we feel real good. We’re happy about the tournament draw. In the tournament, you have to play number one or number two eventually so we’re ready to go.”

Furman enters the contest on a seven-match unbeaten run and boasts a 13-2-4 overall record going into the postseason. The Paladins capped regular season play on Oct. 28, with a 2-0 triumph over Wofford which propelled them to No. 19 in the NSCAA Top 25.

As Lundy mentioned, the Cougars and Paladins drew in the team’s regular season contest at Patriots Point on Oct. 8. The Cougars led twice but Furman had an answer both times to force an ultimately scoreless overtime.

“We have played great soccer this month,” said Lundy. “These last three conference games have been everything I can ask for except for the results. We have to convert the strong play into results. We’ve made some defensive mistakes that we’ll have to grow up and learn from. The tournament starts on Sunday at 6 o’clock at Furman and that’s our season.”

The winner of the match advances to the tournament semifinal to be played on the campus of Appalachian State in Boone, N.C., on Friday, Nov. 11 at 6:30 p.m. The winner will be slated against the winner of No. 3 Georgia Southern and No. 6 Elon.