As the season starts to wind down for the ETSU men’s soccer team, the Bucs played one of their last matches of the regular season against the Wofford Terriers on Tuesday.
The Bucs held off the Terriers to earn a 3-2 win and improve their overall record to 6-5-2, with a conference record of 3-3-1.
The Terriers got off to a quick start, scoring a goal exactly one minute into the match.
Matthew Aurednik got the assist from Connor Donohue to give Wofford an early 1-0 lead over ETSU.
In the 24th minute of the match, James Smith scored the first goal for the Buccaneers, unassisted. This was his fifth goal of the season. Smith had five shots in the match, two of which were on goal.
In the 38th minute of the match, Ben Holt got the assist from Henrique Novaes and made the shot from the right side to put the Buccaneers up 2-1. This goal was Holt’s first of the season.
“It was a lot of fun and a relief to get my first goal,” said Holt. “I just happened to be at the right place at the right time and just slid it right in.”
In the 69th minute of play, Aurednik knocked in a penalty kick to tie the match at two and earn his sixth goal of the season and second goal of the night.
In the match’s 70th minute, Ben Holt got the assist from Cameron Woodfin to get his second goal of the game and of the season, putting the Buccaneers back ahead 3-2.
“Ben came in during the spring and had some bumps and bruises along the way this fall, and I was happy to see him putting in a lot of work,” said Oshoniyi. “He is a true team guy, and getting two goals for him tonight was huge for him and our team.”
ETSU took 19 shots the entire match, and nine of them were shots on goal. They held the Terriers to 11 shots, four of which were shots on goal.
ETSU’s goalie played the full 90 minutes and earned two saves, while the Wofford goalie, Garrett Closs, had five saves, with the Terriers earning one team save.
“We knew right from the start they were going to give us all we could handle,” said Oshoniyi. “We didn’t expect for them to get a goal one minute in, but we looked at it as we have 90 minutes to make up for it, and the guys responded great.”
ETSU had six corner kicks in the match, four of which came in the first period. Wofford had seven corner kicks, six of which came in the second period.
The Buccaneers will travel to Furman University and Mercer University before returning home to play their final match of the season against the University of North Carolina at Greensboro on Oct. 31.
The SoCon tournament quarterfinals will be held on Nov. 7, and the semifinals and championship will be held on Nov. 13 and 15.
ETSU will host the men’s Southern Conference Tournament this year.
“The guys have bought into the belief that we can make a run right now, “said Oshoniyi. “We look forward to the Furman game, and at this point all of these games are like championship games.”
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