University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
Liberty
Men's Soccer Edged by Liberty, 2-1 on Two Late Goals
11.15.2007 | Men's Soccer
ROCK HILL, S.C. ? No. 2 seed Liberty scored two unanswered goals in the final eight minutes of play to comeback and defeat No. 7 seed UNC Asheville, 2-1, in the second game of the 2007 Big South Men's Soccer Championship Thursday at Eagle Field on the campus of Winthrop University. Liberty will play the winner of No. 3 Winthrop/No. 6 High Point Friday evening at 7:00pm in the semifinals.
The squads played a physical first half and defended each other well as the score was 0-0 at the break, in which Liberty outshot Asheville, 8-1. Midway through the second half, the Bulldogs struck first when a streaking Scott Szymanski blasted a shot to the left corner of the net from approximately 20 yards out, giving the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead at the 63:02 mark. It was Szymanski's ninth goal of the year, with J.W. Gallagher assisting on the play.
It remained 1-0 Asheville until Liberty's Cameron Chastain got past the Bulldogs' defense and took a long feed from Justin Willoughby, drilling it past Asheville keeper Phillip Horner to knot the game at 1-1 at 81:02. It was Chastain's first goal of the year. With four minutes left, Jeremiah Klapper broke free and attempted to give Liberty the lead, but Horner came out and made a diving block of Klapper's shot to prevent the score.
It was still 1-1 with under three minutes remaining when Liberty's Joshua Boateng dribbled down the right side before sending a perfect crossing pass across Asheville's box and finding an open Willoughby, who pushed home the game-winning score at 87:19. With the win, Liberty moves to 11-4-2 on the year, while UNC Asheville ends its season at 4-12-1.
"This match sums up the entire season, " commented UNC Asheville coach Steve Cornish. "Close but not close enough. We played well enough to win but give LIberty credit for its two goals. It was a cruel way to end the season and for our seniors.
"However, this match will make us stronger for the future," added Cornish. "We have had a tough season but our lads have never quit or hung their heads the entire year. We played very good soccer at the end of the season and almost pulled off a win against a very fine Liberty team."
