Eagles Travel for Big SoCon Test at No. 23 Furman
10/3/2011 11:01:00 PM | Men's Soccer
STATESBORO, Ga. - Georgia Southern looks to continue its dream start to the 2011 Southern Conference season on Tuesday night with a trip to No. 23 Furman. The Eagles are a perfect 2-0 in conference play after defeating a pair of regionally ranked squads (Davidson and College of Charleston) to open league play.
The Eagles, poised to join the regional rankings this week, are off to their first 2-0 start to the league season since 1998 and can go 3-0 for the first time since 1997. Georgia Southern's offense is led by Luigi Clendening (Augusta, Ga.), who added two scores in the Charleston match to up his season goals tally to nine. At this pace, Clendening will have a shot at setting the school record for goals in a season of 15, set in 1987 by Darryl Watson.
Ryan Platt (Preston, England) has been like the Rock of Gibraltar between the pipes for the Eagles, holding opponents to a 1.22 goals against average with 37 saves. The Eagle offense has provided 2.29 goals per match which has propelled Georgia Southern to a 6-3-1 overall record.
Furman enters Tuesday's contest on the heels of a 2-0 road loss to UNC Greensboro on Saturday night. The Paladins are 8-2-2 with the only other loss coming against Duke, 1-0. Junior forward Coleton Henning and freshman Walker Zimmerman each have three goals to pace the Paladins which have averaged 1.45 goals per match.
The Eagles return home on Friday, October 7th, for a league matinee against Wofford. The contest starts at 1 p.m. and starts an afternoon of soccer at Eagle Field with the Women's team playing a 4 p.m. match to close the afternoon.
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