MT. PLEASANT, S.C. – The College of Charleston men's soccer
team beat Appalachian State, 3-0, behind two goals and an assist for senior
midfielder Sean de Silva at Patriots Point on Saturday evening.
CofC (5-7-0, 1-1-0 SoCon) controlled the pace of play and
produced a 17-14 shot advantage and put seven shots on the target.
“Well we had a lot of chances and we capitalized on them,”
said head coach Ralph Lundy. “We got a lead and the whole team committed to shutting
App. State out. When they were playing us hard and creating chances in the
second half, everybody defended. Everyone focused and played hard and it
worked.”
CofC opened the scoring in the 15th minute when
Troy Peterson (Federal Way, Wash.) kept a ball inside the touch line at the
bottom-right corner of the box. Peterson sent an arching cross into the center
of the box where de Silva (Port of Spain, Trinidad) headed it home from six yards away.
The Cougars insured their lead early in the second half when
de Silva threaded a ball between two defenders at the top of the box to Luke Huggett (Brighton, England) who blasted it into the bottom-right corner of the
net.
CofC put the match further out of reach in the 89th
minute with some clever passing between de Silva and Francis Twohig (St. Simon's
Island, Ga.). De Silva entered the top of the box with the ball and left it for
Twohig who touched it right back to de Silva to execute the give-and-go. De
Silva took the keeper to the ground with a juke then casually chipped it into
the back of the net for his team-high fourth goal of the year.
Huggett and de Silva accounted for 11 of CofC's 17 shots on
the night.
Cougar keeper Kees Heemskerk (Zaandam, Netherlands) organized
his defense well and made two saves for the Cougars for his third shutout of
the season.
The Cougars return to action with a midweek road contest at
UNC Greensboro on Tuesday, Oct. 9. CofC then returns home to host No. 6 North
Carolina on Saturday, Oct. 13.
