College of Charleston
Davidson
First-Place M. Soccer Cruises past Davidson
10/21/2012 2:08:00 AM | Men's Soccer
MT. PLEASANT, S.C. – The Southern Conference-leading College of Charleston men's soccer team posted a comprehensive effort to beat Davidson, 5-0, in impressive fashion at Patriots Point on Saturday evening. With the win, the Cougars assured home-field advantage in the opening round of the nearing SoCon Tournament.
“Interestingly enough, I think we defended better than we did anything else,” said head coach Ralph Lundy. “Davidson attacked and attacked, and the biggest deal was that we shut them out. We defended as a team with tenacity. Now what was nice tonight was that our strikes were on target. Everyone was hitting the ball with quality and putting it on the target.
“We struck the ball well and played hard, but we had to because Davidson is a great team. The score is a little bit deceiving. We put together a real good game, but they attacked the goal real well and we did what we had to.”
For the second time this season, senior midfielder Sean de Silva (Port of Spain, Trinidad) was good for five points with a pair of goals and an assist. Ralphie Lundy (Mt. Pleasant, S.C.), Connor Coons (Alpharetta, Ga.) and Luke Huggett (Brighton, England) also scored for the Cougars.
CofC (8-8-0, 4-1-0 SoCon) outshot the Wildcats, 14-12, and matched their season high with nine shots on target. CofC was forced to fend off 11 corner kicks but was up to the task each time, and Cougar keeper Kees Heemskerk (Zaandam, Netherlands) made four saves on the night to preserve the shutout.
CofC opened the scoring in the 18th minute on a penalty kick converted by Ralphie Lundy. The Wildcats' foul in the box was one of six they committed before CofC was whistled for a single infraction. At full time, Davidson had committed 13 fouls to CofC's seven. Lundy is now 3-for-3 on CofC's penalty kicks this season.
In the 26th minute, de Silva collected the ball at the top-right corner of the goal box and dribbled through traffic along the 18-yard line. After nearly running the width of the penalty area, he shot back across his body with a left footer back to the far-side netting to give CofC a 2-0 lead.
The Cougars stayed on the offensive in the second half and furthered their lead on their lone corner-kick opportunity of the match. The ball was sent in by de Silva and Coons used every bit of his 6-3 frame to rise above the crowd and head the ball into the back of the net.
In the 66th minute, de Silva stood over a free-kick opportunity from the top-left corner of the box and bent the ball to his left-hand side around the defensive wall and under the crossbar for his seventh of the season.
In the 82nd minute, the Cougars added another when George Khoury (Mt. Pleasant, S.C.) played a through ball right through the heart of the Wildcat defense to Huggett who took it in stride and slid it past the charging keeper to make the score 5-0, the ultimate final.
CofC retains first place and will look to secure the regular-season crown and tournament No. 1 seed with a win over Georgia Southern on Saturday, Oct. 27. The Cougars and Eagles kickoff from Patriots Point at 7 p.m.
