Bucs wrap up 2011 regular season, look forward to A-Sun Tournament

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Nov. 1, 2011) – The ETSU men’s soccer teamed wrapped up the 2011 regular season on a chilly Tuesday night at Summers-Taylor Stadium, falling, 1-0, to Appalachian State off a goal by David Dodge in the 102nd minute.

“It certainly was not a good result for us,” said ETSU head coach Scott Calabrese. “I thought we carried a lot of the play, but wound up on the wrong side at the end.

“It’s important for us to now turn our attention towards the conference tournament and Jacksonville. We’ll get a good week and a half worth of practice in and we look forward to hosting the A-Sun Tournament in Johnson City.”

ETSU (9-6-3, 3-4-1 A-Sun) will host the conference tournament at Summers-Taylor Stadium as the No. 6 seed after defeating USC Upstate on Saturday to earn the final spot in the tournament field.

Appalachian State (9-4-4, 3-2-2 SoCon) got back on the winning side of things in a big way, netting the game-winner to snap what was a 502:47 goalless streak which dated back to the Mountaineers’, 2-1, win over Georgia Southern on October 14.

It was senior night as Summers-Taylor Stadium, as Blake Pelton (Chattanooga, Tenn.), Jaron Westbrook (Round Rock, Texas) and Aaron Schoenfeld (Knoxville, Tenn.) were honored prior to the start of the match as ETSU’s three departing seniors. All three were also entered into the starting lineup.

The Mountaineers held ETSU to a limited number of chances early on, taking the game’s first three shots and two corner attempts. ETSU got on the stat sheet in the 24th minute when sophomore David Geno (Kingsport, Tenn.) fired the Bucs’ first shot, but pushed it wide of goal.

Schoenfeld, one of the three honored seniors, followed up Geno’s attempt four minutes later with another shot, but could not find the frame. The senior captain led all shot takers with a game-high five shots and two shots on goal.

Minutes before the end of the first half, junior Theo Yang (Lilburn, Ga.) came inches away from netting his second goal of the season and putting ETSU on top. The junior collected a corner taken by sophomore Itode Fubara (Ogbema, Nigeria) and sent a shot past Danny Free which clanged off the post.

At the break, ASU had taken five shots to ETSU’s four and led the corner war 3-1. Neither keeper made a save as none of the nine combined shots were on goal.

Freshman Pedro Zaccarelli (Sao Paulo, Brazil) came out on fire in the second half, first sending his initial shot attempt wide before nearly finding the back of the net in the 54th minute. With the ball at the near top-right corner of the box, Zaccarelli sent a left-footed shot around Free and nearly bent the ball all the way back into goal, but the shot ricocheted off the far post and back into play. The rebound trickled dangerously in the penalty area, but an ETSU foul negated any ensuing chance.

ETSU threatened with more close calls throughout the half, edging ASU 7-2 in shots through the second frame, but never found the back of the net and the two sides headed for overtime.

The first extra session was highlighted by a near goal from Schoenfeld, who blasted a hard shot to Free’s upper-left side. The Mountaineer keeper made an incredible save, leaping and getting a hand on the ball to touch it just over the crossbar.

The second overtime ended quickly, as Dodge received a pass from Sean Dreybus 10 yards in front of goal and finished with a shot in the upper-left corner just 1:06 in.

ETSU now looks forward to hosting the entire 2011 Atlantic Sun Tournament, beginning the defense of last year’s tournament title in the quarterfinals against No. 3 Jacksonville on Wednesday, November 9, at 7 p.m.

For more information on ETSU men’s soccer, please visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the men’s soccer links.