Wednesday, October 12, 2005

NO. 8 TUSCULUM HOLDS OFF BEARS 3-2, CASTAINCA RECORDS 200^TH WIN

Coach Tony Castainca records 200th career win

HICKORY, N.C. --- Coach Tony Castainca recorded his 200^th career victory as the No. 8 Tusculum College men's soccer team defeated host Lenoir-Rhyne 3-2 Wednesday afternoon in South Atlantic Conference men's soccer action at Bears Field. Castainca, who is in his 17^th season at his alma mater, becomes only one of 17 active NCAA Division II coaches with over 200 career victories. (Box Score)

Tusculum (8-2-1, 4-1-1 SAC) jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but had to hold off a furious L-R rally. Close matches at Lenoir-Rhyne have been a trend for the Pioneers as TC and the Bears have played in five straight one-goal contests when playing in Hickory. Tusculum is 4-1 in its last five visits to L-R with two of those decisions coming in overtime.

The Pioneers broke the scoreless tie in the 19th minute when Matt Ross (Brampton, Ontario, Canada) settled a long pass after getting behind a defender and scored from the left side.

The score remained 1-0 until the 64th minute when Tusculum's Kohei Yamashita (Tokyo, Japan) picked up his first goal of the season after grabbing a pass high in the air between several Bear defenders and, in one swift motion, kicked the ball into the net. 

A breakaway goal by Tusculum's leading scorer, Dave Bailey (Bristol, England), made it 3-0 at the 66:05 mark, his 11^th scoring tally of the season.

Freshman midfielder Gary Higgins (Lakeland, Fla.) received a pass from freshman forward Luis Carrizosa (North Bergen, N.J.) down the middle and scored on the run to get the Bears on the board.  Senior defender Robert Hajnal then cut the lead to 3-2 at the 84:45 mark after handling a long pass off his chest, turning and a drilling the ball into the left corner of the net.

Lenoir-Rhyne, now with the momentum, tallied a couple more shots on goal but Tusculum goalkeeper J.P. Swaminathan (Brampton, Ontario, Canada) and the Pioneers held on for the win.  Swaminathan stopped six shots en route to the win while L-R freshman goalkeeper Tom Gott (Watford, England) suffered the loss despite five saves.

Tusculum travels to Florida this weekend for a pair of non-conference matches at Florida Tech and Barry.

- TC -