Eagles Open Season with Trip to No. 21 UAB
8/25/2012 4:17:48 PM | Men's Soccer
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STATESBORO, Ga. – Georgia Southern’s Men’s Soccer opens the 2012 season on Sunday afternoon with a trip to No. 21 UAB. The 2012 curtain-raiser starts at 4 p.m. (ET) from Birmingham’s West Campus Field.
Last year GSU led the Southern Conference for much of the year behind SoCon Co-Player of the Year Luigi Clendening. This year the Eagles have four of their top five goalscorers back and First Team All-SoCon selection Hunter Norton returns as team captain for the 2012 campaign. The junior captain was named Preseason All-SoCon recently by a vote of the league’s coaches.
Georgia Southern faces the Blazers for the third time in program history on Sunday and for the first time since the 1994 season. Southern earned a 2-2 draw at home in the first match during the 1993 season, but fell 3-0 in the return-trip the following year.
UAB enters the season ranked No. 20 in the NSCAA/Continental Tire Division I Men’s Soccer Preseason Poll. The Blazers took a 2-1 victory over Mercer to open the year on Friday night.
UAB returns eight starters from a squad which was an at-large selection to the NCAA Tournament a year ago. The Blazers, however, are without the services of Babayele Sodade who scored 13 goals last season. Sodade graduated and is now plying his trade with the Seattle Sounders.
Following Sunday’s match the Eagles travel to Spartanburg, S.C. for a pair of neutral site games against Winthrop and Gardner-Webb at Wofford’s Snyder Field. Southern faces Winthrop on Friday at 5 p.m. before playing Gardner-Webb on Sunday at 1 p.m.
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