Seniors Lead Way On Senior Day

CLINTON, S.C. ? The Presbyterian College men's soccer team made it a senior night to remember with a 2-1 victory over USC Upstate before 512 fans on Saturday evening at Martin Soccer Stadium.

The win ended PC's home schedule with the Blue Hose 2-1 on the year in home games. It also improved the Blue Hose to 3-1-1 in their last five outings.

Overall, the Blue Hose enter their final match of the year against Winthrop with a 4-10-2 record. USC Upstate with the loss closed out their inaugural NCAA Division I men's soccer campaign with a 3-14 record.

On senior day it was the senior's who made sure that they did not end their career at home with a loss.

The Blue Hose scored one goal each half to garner the victory. Senior Bennett Cope (Mobile, Ala.) ended his Blue Hose career at Martin Stadium by scoring in the 38th-minute.

Cope took a pass from fellow senior Brandon Tucker (Englewood, Colo.) and then proceeded to maneuver into his own shot, striking a bullet past USC Upstate goalkeeper Jason McAbe into the top right corner of the net.

The Blue Hose then netted the all important 2-0 lead in the 57th-minute when senior Kyle Neely (Rock Hill, S.C.) used a freeing pass from Jay Stewart (Roswell, Ga.) to slide the ball past McAbe and give PC a 2-0 lead.

USC Uptate was able to pull within one in the 68th-minute when Chad McCoy hit a shot that deflected off the PC defense and went into the back of the net past PC goalkeeper Mark Owens (Charleston, S.C.).

The Blue Hose defense would hold strong in the final 20 minutes and the Blue Hose acquired the victory in the first meeting between the two schools since their athletic departments made the transition to NCAA Division I.

In total, PC finished with six more shot attempts than the Spartans at 14-8.

Owens concluded his PC career at Martin Stadium with three saves.

The victory was the end of the 30 Years of Blue Hose soccer celebration in Clinton on Saturday, which included an alumni soccer match, the first PC soccer team being honored at halftime of the PC Football victory over Chowan and senior day for the men's soccer program where they honored their 10 seniors prior the match.

PC will try and close out their first NCAA Division I season with wins in four of their last six games of the season against Winthrop at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 11 in Rock Hill, S.C.

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