Tusculum, Wingate Advance To Finals Of Food Lion SAC Men’s Soccer Tournament

ROCK HILL, S.C. -- Top-seed Tusculum College and sixth-seed Wignate University will meet Sunday for the championship of the Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Men's Soccer Tournament after winning semifinal matches Friday at Manchester Meadows Soccer Complex.

Tusculum and Wingate will meet Sunday at 4 p.m. for the tournament championship.

No. 1 Tusculum 2, No. 4 Lincoln Memorial 0

The seventh-ranked Tusculum College men's soccer team advanced to the Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Tournament final with a 2-0 shutout victory over fourth-seeded Lincoln Memorial University. With the win, the Pioneers improve to 17-2-1 on the season, while the Railsplitters end their season at 11-7-2.

Tusculum opened the scoring an even three minutes into the match when Anteneh Lemma knocked in his 13th goal of the season, taking a pass from Lucas Paulini and tucking it in the bottom right corner to put TC up 1-0 early. SAC Player of the Year Bruno Conceicão extended the advantage to 2-0 in the closing seconds of the 12th minute with his conference-leading 22nd goal of the season, off a pair of one-touch passes by Telmo Dantes and Lemma.

Lincoln Memorial outshot the Pioneers 8-3 in the match. Tusculum goalkeeper Lance Moore made one save to notch his 10th clean sheet of the season and the 16th of his career, moving past Tony Swaminathan into first all-time in program history and tying Swaminathan's single-season mark set in 2002.

Lemma led the Pioneers with his fourth match-winner of the season while adding his ninth assist of the campaign. Paulini and Dantes each added an assist in the match, as Paulini moved into a three-way tie for the team lead with his 10th helper of the season.

No. 6 Wingate 3, No. 7 Lenoir-Rhyne 2 (OT)

Wingate junior forward Junior Nyemb (Douala, Cameroon) scored with six seconds remaining in overtime to give the sixth seeded Bulldogs a 3-2 win over the number seven seed Bears of Lenoir-Rhyne University in the semifinals of the 2008 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Men's Soccer Tournament Friday evening at Manchester Meadows. The Bulldogs improve to 12-6-2 overall and move on to face Tusculum in the championship match Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. Lenoir-Rhyne falls to 9-9-1.

The teams played to a 0-0 tie in the first half. Lenoir-Rhyne held a 7-6 edge in shots.

The Bears got on the board at the 63:32 mark when sophomore midfielder Carlos Martin (Madrid, Spain) took a rebound in front of the net and gave Lenoir-Rhyne a 1-0 lead.

Wingate had the answer 12 minutes later when freshman midfielder Fabricio Barancoski (Sao Paulo, Brazil) took a loose ball in front of the net to tie the match at one.

Lenoir-Rhyne would regain the lead with 4:25 remaining in regulation when junior midfielder Ace March (Pasadena, Md.) took a loose ball and chipped it over the head of charging goalkeeper Joey Calandra (Mount Pleasant, S.C.) to make it 2-1.

The Bulldogs had a golden opportunity 20 seconds later when sophomore forward Rory Green (Nottingham, England) had a penalty kick, but the shot hit the crossbar and Wingate could not convert on the rebound.

Wingate was able to tie the game with 2:40 remaining in regulation when sophomore midfielder Jack Vundum (Birmingham, England) scored on a free kick from 30 yards out.

With the overtime period running out, Wingate sophomore forward Jamie McKenna (Blackpool, England) found Nyemb with a cross right in front of the net for the game-winner.

Wingate held a 23-22 edge in shots on the evening including a 12-10 advantage in shots on goal. Calandra racked up eight saves on the night while Lenoir-Rhyne freshman goalkeeper Matthew DiCerbo (Boca Raton, Fla.) collected nine saves for the Bears.