Oct. 23, 2004
Wilmington, N.C. – South Carolina men’s soccer bounced back on the road with a 3-1 win at UNC Wilmington on Saturday evening. The win improves USC to 9-4-1 on the season while the loss drops UNC Wilmington to 9-5-1 on the year. The Carolina men’s squad is back in action on Wednesday, Oct. 27 when the Gamecocks host Furman at 7 p.m. at Stone Stadium.
“I’m very proud of our team tonight,” said USC head coach Mark Berson. “They stuck to their guns after suffering some setbacks and have continued to believe in themselves. We got a hard fought win tonight on the road against a good team.”
USC would score the first three goals of the match on its way to a victory over the Seahawks. South Carolina would score its first goal in the 42nd minute as Michael Sambursky and Sebastian Lindholm took advantage of a 2-on-1 situation with Sambursky’s cross finding Lindholm in the box, who knocked a shot past UNCW goalkeeper Brad Knighton to give the Gamecocks a one-goal edge.
It would remain 1-0 until 59:09 when USC got its second goal as a misplay was handled by forward Ayo Akinsete and played to the feet of Greg Reece who controlled the loose ball and hit a shot into the goal increasing the Gamecock lead. Carolina would go ahead three goals in the 67th minute as a handball in the box resulted in a penalty kick. Eric Szeszycki would score his third goal of the season on the penalty kick.
“We scrapped and it was nice to see the results tonight for our team especially with three goals,” said Coach Berson. “We haven’t had things go our way the last couple games, but tonight the hard work paid off.”
UNCW would deny South Carolina of a shutout though with Russell Bienias scoring at 83:48 on a header off a throw-in by Garry Stevenson. USC goalkeeper Brad Guzan continued his quality play in goal as he finished with three saves. South Carolina outshot UNCW 12-11 with both teams taking five corner kicks apiece. Nine of Carolina’s 12 shots were on goal as Knighton came up with six saves for the Seahawks.
