Men’s Soccer Notebook (Sept. 28)
CHANTS NOTCH TOP 25 WIN
Coastal Carolina’s Martin Melchor and Jair Espinoza each scored goals to lead Coastal Carolina to a 2-1 road victory at #20 Radford last Saturday night. The Chanticleer win gave CCU a 20-13-4 all-time advantage over Radford. The win was the first by a Sun Belt program against a Top 25-ranked team this season.
PANTHERS REMAIN UNDEFEATED AT HOME
Georgia State notched a 2-0 victory over Presbyterian on Saturday night to maintain its perfect record at home. Freshman Kyle Clinton scored the game-winning goal, his first career goal. The Panthers also improved to 4-3 this season while the Blue Hose fell to 1-6. Sophomore Max Hemmings scored the second goal of the game on a penalty kick, putting GSU up 2-0 heading into halftime. Georgia State had an impressive game defensively, holding Presbyterian to just three shots with none on target. All three of Presbyterian’s shots came in the 25 minutes of the match.
HARTWICK POSTS TWO-WIN WEEK
The Hawks went 2-0 this week with 2-1 road victories over Siena and Fairfield. Johnny McBeth scored the game-winning goal against Siena. Harry Morton tied the score in the early going. Jack Donaldson assisted both goals. Mike Rood scored 6:33 into the first overtime in a 2-1 victory Saturday at Fairfield. Jack Donaldson tied the match in the second half with a free kick goal. Hartwick plays UVM on Tuesday. The Catamounts were ranked #2 in last week’s NSCAA East Region poll. The Hawks host Bryant on Saturday during True Blue Weekend. Kickoff is 6 p.m.
JASON O’KEEFE EARNS FIRST WIN AT APP
Freshman Graham Smalley scored his first collegiate goal and game-winner to give Appalachian State University men’s soccer its first win of the season and Jason O’Keefe his first win as head coach. The Mountaineers rallied after a USC Upstate equalizer in the 71st minute by scoring two goals in the final 14 minutes of the game to win 3-1.
MURPHY ERA OFF AND RUNNING
By winning the first game of his tenure, first-year Georgia Southern head coach John Murphy joins former head coaches Ray Wells, Tom Norton and Kevin Kennedy with the distinction of having won their first games at the helm of the program.
GEORGIA STATE EARNS MARQUEE WIN
The Panthers earned a 4-1 victory over Memphis in their home opener on Sunday. Sophomore Hannes Burmeister scored a hat trick with three goals in the first 20 minutes of the second half to lead the Panthers to the win. The victory is the first for a Sun Belt men’s soccer program against an American Athletic Conference opponent since the league resumed play for the 2014 season.
COASTAL CAROLINA EARNS PRESEASON TOP 25 RANKING
Coastal Carolina, a newcomer to the Sun Belt this season, earned Top 25 rankings in two national polls. The Chanticleers were No. 18 in the TopDrawerSoccer.com poll and No. 21 in the NSCAA Preseason Top 25. Coastal is coming off a 13-win campaign that was also highlighted by the program’s program-best regular season ranking of fourth during two weeks in late September and early October. In addition, Coastal ranked No. 20 in the final NSCAA poll, marking the fifth consecutive and eighth time overall that the Chanticleers have ended the season ranked in the Top 25.
SUN BELT ENTERS YEAR 23 OF MEN’S SOCCER
The Sun Belt Conference began its third consecutive year of play as a men’s soccer conference last weekend after resuming the sport in 2014. The 2016 season marks the 23rd overall for men’s soccer in the league as it was sponsored from 1976-95. The announcement was made on Tuesday, February 11, 2014, that the conference would reintroduce men’s soccer. In fact, the first ever Sun Belt Championship in any sport was the 1976 men’s soccer championship.