NEWBERRY, S.C. – After over a week of rainy weather and two postponed matches, Men's Soccer was finally able to play their first home South Atlantic Conference match as they looked to defeat the visiting Catawba Indians. Both teams entered the match carrying victories from the previous match as the Wolves defeated USC-Aiken in their last match on August 1, and Catawba defeated Emory & Henry in theirs.
The first half started off slow for the Wolves, as Catawba looked to get going early from the start. An early penalty kick awarded to Catawba looked to result in the opening goal for the Indians, but a clutch save from senior goalkeeper Pablo Cubas (Playa del Hombre, Spain) came up huge with the save to preserve the tie. Unfortunately, the save would be in vain as the visitors would open the scoring after the 7th minute. As the first half continued on, the Wolves seemed to find their legs as they would increase the attacking pressure and threaten towards the end of the half, but good saves from the Catawba goalkeeper would maintain the lead for them heading into the second half.
Feeding off the momentum at the end of the first half, the Wolves looked to finally be able to capitalize on their attacking chances. Fortunately for the Wolves, the answer to the opening goal would be found as a beautiful passing display from junior forward Uriel Zarracan (Bluffton, S.C.) and sophomore midfielder Nattnael Zerai (Skara, Sweden) would lead to freshman forward Filip Tmusic (Cetinje, Montenegro) finding the back of the net for his first goal of the season.
The goal would spark the Wolves as two yellow cards from Catawba within ten minutes of the first goal for Newberry seemed to show that the momentum was shifting. That all would change when the second goal for the Indians from distance would grab the lead again. Being in a similar position just earlier in the match, the Wolves would respond in the same way, being the aggressor on the attack and coming within inches of the tying goal. Unfortunately, the result would not go in favor of the Wolves as after full time, the Indians defeated the Wolves 2-1.
Catching up with Head Coach Justin Cook after the match, he started off by commenting on the effort of the players, going on to say how proud he was of the effort to work for a full 90 minutes and coming within inches of the equalizing goal. "I told the guys I was really happy with the effort. I thought we played well enough to get a point at least out of this game, so from that aspect, it's a bit frustrating. Still, I can't fault the guy's effort; they worked their tail off, and if we keep playing like that, we'll get more results." Looking forward to Sunday, he would go on to also give his take on the Wolves next opponent Emory & Henry and what he expects from his team moving forward, "Getting a result. It's a business trip, so we gotta go up there and take care of business and get a win."
The Wolves will be on the road Sunday as they travel to Emory, Virginia and look to get their first conference win against the Emory & Henry Wasps for a scheduled kickoff time at 3:30 PM.
