STATESBORO - The Georgia Southern men's soccer team will look to get into the win column this weekend as the Eagles will play a pair of matches over the Labor Day Weekend.
Friday, the Eagles make the short trip to Jacksonville, Fla., to take on the University of North Florida at 8 p.m. On Monday, Georgia Southern hosts No. 5-ranked Clemson at 7 p.m. in its 2017 home opener, and the Eagles are trying to break their single-match attendance record by drawing more than 1,200 fans to come out and watch the match against the Tigers.
Head coach John Murphy's squad went 0-2 at the Aaron Olitsky Tournament in Charleston, S.C., during its opening weekend, suffering a pair of 1-0 losses to Monmouth and Furman. Sophomore Justin Little and freshman Gonzalo Talavera, who both played all 180 minutes at central defender over the weekend, were named to the All-Tournament Team.
"Any time you play actual games, you find out a lot about your team," Murphy said about his squad's opening weekend of action. "The good news is, I came away more positive than ever. I think we've had some injuries and some missing players, as all teams around the country have at this time of year. But it forced us to shift some things around, and we saw some good options from that. Now that we have people starting to come back, it just gives us a deeper squad. And at the end of the day, I think that's going to help us throughout the season."
Here's a quick look at who the Eagles face this Labor Day Weekend.
NORTH FLORIDA
Location: Jacksonville, Fla.
Nickname: Ospreys
Conference: Atlantic Sun Conference
Head Coach: Derek Marinatos
2017 Record: 1-1
Series Record: GS leads 6-5-1
Live Video Link: https://www.facebook.com/northfloridaospreys/ (Facebook Live broadcast)
Live Stats Link: http://www.sidearmstats.com/unf/msoc/
The Ospreys split their season-opening matches last weekend, defeating Campbell, 2-0, on Friday before falling to UNC Wilmington, 3-2, on Sunday, in the 6th Annual Mike Gibbs Tournament in Jacksonville. Adrian Nunez, the ASUN Freshman of the Year a season ago, was named the ASUN Player of the Week for his three goals on the weekend, including both goals in the one-goal loss to the Seahawks.
North Florida has captured back-to-back ASUN regular season crowns and were picked to finish second in the 2017 ASUN regular season standings, behind Florida Gulf Coast. Last year, the Eagles hosted the Ospreys in Statesboro and picked up a 2-0 win, thanks to 10 saves in net by Torgeir Fjaer and goals from Nick Wells and Christian Duncan.
"Derek's done a fantastic job down there," Murphy said. "UNF is very strong program and we expect it to be a good game. I admire the fact that they try and play, they try and connect, try and pass. I like to think we are the same kind of team, or we strive to be that kind of team. We're looking forward to getting on their pitch and playing a good game. It's a good regional rivalry for us, the games have been very competitive over the years and I don't expect tomorrow night to be any different."
CLEMSON
Location: Clemson, S.C.
Nickname: Tigers
Conference: Atlantic Coast Conference
Head Coach: Mike Noonan
2017 Record: 2-0
USC National Ranking: No. 5
Series Record: Clemson leads 7-1-2
Live Video Link: http://gseagles.com/watch/?Live=1198&type=Live (True Blue TV)
Live Stats Link: http://statb.us/b/179730
Clemson is 2-0 heading into its Friday night in-state rivalry matchup with the University of South Carolina. The Tigers hosted Cal State Fullerton (W 2-0) and Radford (W 2-1) on opening weekend and remained No. 5 in the latest United Soccer Coaches NCAA DI Men's Soccer Top 25 with the pair of wins.
Diego Campos tallied both goals for the Tigers in the Sunday win over Radford, while Jason Wright and Malick Mbaye notched the scores for Clemson in the season-opening win over Cal State Fullerton. Scoring, so far, has not been an issue for a Tigers team that averaged 1.39 goals per match in 2016. Counting its three exhibition contests, Clemson has scored 14 goals in five matches (2.8 goals per match), including a wild 4-4 draw with preseason No. 17 Virginia Tech on August 19th.
The Eagles and the Tigers met last season in Clemson, with the home team notching a 1-0 win on a goal by Aaron Jones in the 84th minute. The No. 5-ranked Tigers will be the highest-ranked opponent to visit Eagle Park since No. 2 UNC Greensboro faced Georgia Southern on Oct. 5, 2004.
"Mike's someone I know very well," Murphy said. "I've been fortunate enough to work with him in two different places, in the early to mid-90s and as recent as 2010. He's someone I have a great deal of respect for, and he's one of the finest coaches in the country. We know it's going to be a very difficult game.
"These are the types of teams we want to bring to Statesboro, the types of teams we want to compete against and the type of teams we want to be successful against. It's a huge, huge challenge for our team. I think Clemson will be pleasantly surprised when they come down to our facility, see the quality of our pitch. I'm expecting a big crowd and we're going to find out a lot about ourselves after Monday night."
COACH MURPHY ON THE RIGOROUS EARLY SCHEDULE, OPENING WITH FOUR TEAMS WHO HAVE WON CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS IN THE LAST THREE YEARS
"I think you have to be resilient. We're going to face challenges all the time, and you have to deal with these challenges - you can't just deal with the challenges that are the nice ones. The hard ones, the difficult ones, being 0-2, it can eat away at your confidence if you allow it to. The kids need to understand each game brings a new opportunity to step forward. I think when you play against top teams, it brings out the best in you. This is what we're trying to do with the upgrade of our schedule in 2017 and moving forward. Hopefully over the years you're going to see more and more top teams coming to Statesboro. Our goal is to play the toughest schedule we can play. With these four games, we're going to use it as a platform to move forward, but you have to find ways to get results while you are still trying to find yourself."
SETTING A RECORD
Georgia Southern is attempting to break its single-match attendance record on Monday for the match against No. 5 Clemson. Fans coming to the match at 7 p.m. will receive free pizza, free GS branded vuvuzelas, there will be a bouncy ball house for kids and fans can enter a raffle to win a free signed Georgia Southern team soccer ball. The attendance record is 1,200, so fans are encouraged to come early and pack the Park!
"We ask everybody in Eagle Nation to come out and even people in the area, in the region who want to see a great soccer game, this is one you can't pass up," Muprhy said. "It's a great opportunity to see a top team play a local team. It will be a fantastic night for soccer!"
