TUSCULUM, TENN. — With the season coming to a close soon, the Newberry College Men's Soccer team traveled to Tennessee for the second time in two weeks to take on the Tusculum Pioneers in a battle of South Atlantic Conference programs looking to make a late push towards tournament play.
The Wolves, after their last match with Shaw University which resulted in a 1-0 victory, would be looking to extend the streak to two matches with a victory today, which would be vital for momentum going forward.
The Pioneers would be coming into the match with momentum of their own, as a large win against Emory & Henry would entail that this match would be an interesting one going forward.
Kicking off at 5 PM local time, the match would start off on the defensive end as the Wolves would see two shots within the first two minutes, but both would be saved by senior goalkeeper Pablo Cubas (Playa Del Hombre, Spain).
The Pioneers, however, would ensure that the third shot would go in as Tusculum would be able to grab the lead early on in the game after 13 minutes played.
The Pioneers would not be done threatening the goal as three more shots would see our defense have to hold strong and prevent a second goal to the home team, but the story of the first half would be about how the Wolves would not be able to get a shot off in the entire half.
Seeing that the home team would be playing with a lead and with a more defensive approach for the second half, the Wolves would have to find answers to counter the approach that Tusculum was implementing. Luckily for Newberry, this team is battle-tested and the mentality would be different going into half number two.
With the second half commencing, the Wolves would have to be more aggressive in their attacking approach, and they would do just that as sophomore midfielder Ethan Orozco (Dallas, Texas) would fire a shot that would just miss to the right of the goal after 48 minutes played. An ensuing corner kick would be the result, but the Wolves would show that this match would not go down without a fight.
The Pioneers would turn up the offensive intensity in response, sending off a quick trio of shots of their own. At this point, the match had obtained almost peak intensity until a second half goal from junior Uriel Zarracan (Bluffton, S.C.) off of a loose ball in the box would send the intensity to another level.
With Zarracan's fifth goal of the season, the Wolves would then need to seize the momentum and grab the deciding goal as the time winded down. The home team would attempt to find the winning goal, but the defense and Cubas would have other plans, and although the Wolves would have one more shot on goal from senior midfielder Adrian Garcia (Pamplona, Spain), the match would ultimately end in a draw.
The Wolves will look to get back into the win column with a midweek SAC match on October 19 as Mars Hill comes into town, scheduled for a 6 PM kickoff.
