Thursday, November 10, 2005

CATAWBA DEFEATS TUSCULUM 2-1 IN NCAA TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND
Match summary courtesy of Carson-Newman Sports Information

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – After trailing 1-0 at the half, the Catawba Indians scored two second-half goals to advance to the second round of the NCAA Division II Men’s Soccer Tournament as they defeated Tusculum 2-1 Thursday afternoon at McCown Field on the Carson-Newman Campus. (Box Score)

Catawba’s Tyler Kulp (Ephrata, Pa.) scored the winning goal in the 78^th minute when he put back a rebound of a ball that deflected off a Tusculum defender. Earlier in the second half, Nathan Zuzga (Troy, Mich.) tied the match at 1-1 when he scored off a cross on a foul kick by teammate Kenny Crowe (Reeders, Pa.).

The Pioneers struck first when Ryan Butler (Herts, England) scored on a shot from 18 yards out at the 31:17 mark of the match. Indian goalkeeper Dan Fitzgerald (Seaford, Del.) had eight saves for Catawba and Tusculum’s J.P. Swaminathan (Brampton, Ontario) had four saves for the Pioneers.

“We played well enough to win, but it just didn’t come out our way,” Tusculum head coach Tony Castainca said after the match. When asked about his team’s second consecutive trip to the NCAA Division II Tournament, Castainca said “It says a lot for our program, as well as a lot for the South Atlantic Conference. Our conference has the best three teams in the region. It was the same set up as last year, and I think it will be that way for years to come. It’s nice to see our conference have this kind of success.”

“Today was an entertaining match and the fans enjoyed two quality teams going after one another,” Catawba head coach Craig Turnbull said. “Tusculum got ahead early in the match with a goal, and we missed some shots early on. I told our guys at halftime that there was another 45 minutes to play and not to panic. We just needed to have a quality pace in the second half and to keep defending in the back. Our back three or four guys really stepped up today.”

The Pioneers end their season with an 11-7-1 record. Catawba advances to the Appalachian Regional Final, where they will face Carson-Newman for the third time this season. C-N has won both of the two previous meetings between the SAC rivals.

-TC-