Clinton, S.C. - Presbyterian College men's soccer notched a
pair of seconds and a first on Saturday night to close the 2009 season with a
1-0 win over VMI. The win was PC's second
Big South victory in program history, the second Division I win on Senior Day
and marked PC's first win over the Keydets in school history. PC improves to 3-11-2 and 2-4-2 in the Big
South. VMI falls to 2-14-1 and 1-7 in
Big South play.
"I'm so proud of these seniors and this team," said head
coach Bret Boulware. "On paper the
results haven't been there but take away the wins and losses and this team has represented
Presbyterian College tremendously. I'm
excited for the spring with the direction of this program and that we finish
the season in very elite company. We
will be the only other team in the country to finish our season with a win other
than the National Champion and that is something special."
Paul Gunning put the Blue Hose in front after 41 minutes with
his first goal of the season. He was
played the ball by Juan Ocampo who put the ball into the center of the six yard
box. The Scotsman ripped the shot past
the diving VMI keeper to put PC up 1-0.
At the intermission PC honored the 2009 class of
seniors. Sam Eastridge, Paul Jackson and
Zach Sinkuler were joined at midfield by their families as they were honored
halfway through their final collegiate match.
Sinkuler however, was sent off in the 67th minute when he
got tangled with and brought down a VMI attacker who was free on goal. The Blue Hose were then forced to play with
just ten men.
In the 75th minute, VMI looked to have scored the
equalizer but the linesman's flag denied the attempt as the Keydets were
adjudged to be offsides. Overall, VMI
was offsides five times while PC was flagged only once.
In the 80th minute, VMI's Ayao Sossou received his
second yellow card of the match to earn him a red card. The matching reds took both teams to ten men
for the remainder of the match.
The Blue Hose defense held tough and earned goalkeeper
Andrew Wallingford his second clean sheet of his career. He made seven saves in the match.
PC outshot VMI, 14-12 and 8-7 in shots on goal. VMI took more corner kicks by a 6-2 margin.
