Eagles Fall Short at UNCG, 5-0
10/26/2011 1:19:00 AM | Men's Soccer
GREENSBORO, N.C. - With results across the league falling into place, Georgia Southern Men's Soccer just needed to get past UNC Greensboro to win its first regular season Southern Conference Championship. The Eagles, however, were downed 5-0 in the regular season finale by UNCG. The Eagles await their opponent in the SoCon Tournament and will take either the second, third or fourth seed in the conference tournament.
"I'm obviously disappointed in the result, but by the same token, we shouldn't have any regrets," said Head Coach Kevin Kennedy. "We tried to seize the moment and play attacking soccer. We knew we were playing for a league championship and we went for it. UNCG is a very dangerous team and they made us pay for our mistakes."
The Eagles fell behind, 1-0 in the 37th minute as the Spartans' Austin Miller scored his fifth goal of the season off an assist by Oddur Gudmundsson. The hosts took their advantage against the run of play and held the lead into the locker room at halftime.
UNCG doubled its advantage just 10 minutes into the second half with a goal by Hakan Ilhan. He got the ball on a give-and-go from Gudmundsson 20 yards from goal and scored his eighth tally of the season.
Miller scored again in the 82nd minute on another combination play by Gudmundsson. The Spartans added a fourth in the 85th minute from Ilhan and Gudmundsson scored the fifth in the 86th minute. The goals cemented the result and moved the Spartans into first place in the Southern Conference with 13 points and one match left to play.
Georgia Southern's offense recorded 11 shots to the Spartans' 12 with Drew Ruggles (Manassas, Va.) leading the charge forward. GSU goalkeeper Ryan Platt (Preston, England) posted just two saves on the night as the Eagles allowed a season-high goals total.
Georgia Southern will wait 12 days until its next match, opening the 2011 Southern Conference Tournament at home against an opponent to be determined. The match on November 6th, starts at 2 p.m.
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